DNA identification cases are cases in which DNA identified or cleared offenders. Colin Pitchfork was the first murderer caught using DNA analysis, after the 1986 rape and murder of Dawn Ashworth in Leicestershire, where Alec Jeffreys had discovered that patterns in a person's DNA distinguish individuals. The Golden State Killer case used the public genealogy database GEDmatch to connect crime scene evidence to distant relatives of Joseph James DeAngelo, arrested in 2018 in Sacramento and suspected of about 50 rapes and 12 murders between 1974 and 1986. Gary Ridgway killed for nearly twenty years until a DNA test linked him to four victims, and he pleaded guilty to forty-eight murders in 2003.
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DNA Identification Cases
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Chemical and Engineering News: Thirty years of DNA forensics
Chemical and Engineering NewsIntroductionQuote, Introduction
Pitchfork was the first murderer to be caught using DNA analysis.
Science News: How DNA sleuthing led police to the Golden State Killer suspect
Science NewsIntroductionQuote, Introduction
Investigators have confirmed they used a public genealogy database, GEDmatch, to connect crime scene evidence to distant relatives of Joseph James DeAngelo.
EBSCO Research Starters: Gary Ridgway
EBSCO Research StartersSignificanceQuote, Significance
eluding police until a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test linked him to four victims
Wikipedia: Colin Pitchfork
Has Member: Colin Pitchfork Case, Lead sentenceQuote, Has Member: Colin Pitchfork Case, Lead sentence
Colin Pitchfork (born 23 March 1960) is an English child-murderer and child-rapist.
Wikipedia: Gary Ridgway
Has Member: Green River Killer Case, Investigation sectionQuote, Has Member: Green River Killer Case, Investigation section
Later advances in DNA profiling allowed investigators to definitively link Ridgway to the murders, and he was arrested on November 30, 2001.
Wikipedia: Joseph James DeAngelo
Has Member: Golden State Killer Case, Other names, 2001 DNA linkageQuote, Has Member: Golden State Killer Case, Other names, 2001 DNA linkage
In 2001, DNA testing indicated that the offenders labeled as the 'East Area Rapist' and the 'Original Night Stalker' were the same person, resulting in the combined acronym EARONS.
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