Skip to content
Rounds
0:00 / 0:00

How They Caught The Golden State Killer

Veritasium

21M subscribers • 15 videos on Rounds

YouTube
  • Recommended by 1 person, in Hacker News.

For anyone, no background needed. Education, not medical advice.

10M views5 years ago1 recommendation

How the body worksEvidence and public healthGenetics and genomicsPublic health and policy

Veritasium explains how investigators used consumer DNA databases and forensic genealogy to identify the Golden State Killer.

Your genetic code is probably already in a database, without you ever giving a sample or permission. This video is sponsored by Brilliant. The first 200 people to sign up via brilliant.org/veritasium get 20% off a yearly subscription. ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ A huge thanks to Paul Holes, Billy Jensen, Brett Williams, Dr Connie Bormans and Dr Doc Edge for being part of this video. Thanks to Verogen and Family Tree DNA for giving me access to film. Thanks to Sonya Pemberton, Joe Hanson, Raquel Nuno, CGP Grey, and numerous Patreon supporters for helpful feedback on an earlier version of this video. ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ References: Phillips, C. (2018). The Golden State Killer investigation and the nascent field of forensic genealogy. Forensic Science International: Genetics, 36, 186-188. -- ve42.co/Phillips2018 Guerrini, C. J., Robinson, J. O., Petersen, D., & McGuire, A. L. (2018). Should police have access to genetic genealogy databases? Capturing the Golden State Killer and other criminals using a controversial new forensic technique. PLoS biology, 16(10), e2006906. -- ve42.co/Guerrini Ram, N., Guerrini, C. J., & McGuire, A. L. (2018). Genealogy databases and the future of criminal investigation. Science, 360(6393), 1078-1079. -- ve42.co/Ram2019 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Andrew, Diffbot, Micah Mangione, MJP, Gnare, Nick DiCandilo, Dave Kircher, Edward Larsen, Burt Humburg, Blake Byers, Dumky, Evgeny Skvortsov, Meekay, Bill Linder, Paul Peijzel, Mac Malkawi, Michael Schneider, Big Badaboom, Ludovic Robillard, Jim buckmaster, fanime96, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Vincent, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Alfred Wallace, Clayton Greenwell, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi, Ron Neal ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Executive Producer: Derek Muller Writer: Derek Muller Animators: Ivy Tello, Another Angle 3D Visuals SFX: Shaun Clifford Camerapeople: Derek Muller, Raquel Nuno, Shirley Dutoit, Emily Zhang Editor: Derek Muller Producers: Derek Muller, Casey Rentz, Petr Lebedev, Emily Zhang Additional video supplied by Getty Images Music from Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.com ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

Why it's here

1 person recommends this

What people say. Recommended for its clear explanation of how genetic databases can identify individuals through their relatives.

falcolasin Hacker News • Recommends

On “San Francisco police linked a woman to a crime using DNA from her rape exam”

DNA is a genie that's flown far and free from their bottle. Even if you are not in the system directly (from, say, 23&me, rape kits, arrests, etc), someone within 2-3 degrees of separation on your family tree is. It's enough for you to be identified in most cases. If you haven't watched the video Veritasium did about the Golden State Killer, I highly recommend it. It details quite nicely how if anybody has your DNA sample, the police have access to it. link to this video Bonus points for noticing how many of these company reps who tout "nothing to hide" like protecting their own privacy.
View on Hacker News

johncessnain Hacker News • Mentions

On “Investigators say they've finally identified the Zodiac Killer”

Weird, I just finished watching Veritasium's 1 latest video which featured the techniques for finding the Golden State Killer, and saw this one come across the feed. 1 link to this video
View on Hacker News

nextaccounticin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why kidney failure led me to found an Health Tech Startup”

Do they store the dna in a database that law enforcement could, perhaps with a subpoena, have access to? Here's a video how law enforcement can get a match on a dna database through any of your relatives that did a dna test there. link to this video This kind of thing creates a chilling effect in which people avoid getting the medical help they need just to not contribute with a permanent genetic database. This kind of stuff is exactly why HIPAA exists. Also: why did they give you a summary, but gave the doctors a full report? Could you get the full report if you asked them?
View on Hacker News

donatjin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Facebook plans to shut down its facial recognition system”

If you don't like that, you're going to hate this. link to this video Basically they can find you from your DNA, even if only a couple very distant relatives ever gave theirs.
View on Hacker News

aaron695in Hacker News • Mentions

On “Ask HN: Have you done a DNA test for health reasons and learned anything useful?”

…le. My skin cancer was low, should I wear sunscreen less? Maybe it breaks some peoples self denial or gives them a kick in the ass? Definitely do it though a Chinese company if you can. Keep it out of the hands of governments that control you. Probably you are screwed anyway on this - "How 1 Person Can Expose The Identities of 1000" - Veritasium - link to this video I think it's good to get control of your body. Maybe it's busy work. Maybe it's not.…
View on Hacker News

timmytokyoin Hacker News • Mentions

On “All Those 23andMe Spit Tests Were Part of a Bigger Plan”

Except that this kind of person is related to other people who might have different views on such consent. link to this video
View on Hacker News

afioriin Hacker News • Mentions

On “San Francisco police linked a woman to a crime using DNA from her rape exam”

Finding people from remote relatives and medical inferences. If someone has access to enough nicely distributed DNA samples they can correctly identify you from your DNA even if you are not in any database only based on your family tree. Varitasium video for reference: link to this video This is generally time consuming and done to identify criminals but it is very simple.
View on Hacker News

morebortplatesin Hacker News • Mentions

On “We can ID people from DNA that shows up in environmental studies”

That's exactly how the so called Golden State Killer was caught. link Video by Veritassium about the case: link to this video
View on Hacker News

rochoin Hacker News • Mentions

On “23andMe frantically changed its terms of service to prevent customers from suing”

…rtue of being the same species. It's even higher for brothers. We also share around 90% DNA with cats, dogs and elephants. link > I'm not too worried about it because it's never a 100% overlap. This doesn't make sense. If they were equal, you'd be the same person except for environmental differences. Many applications don't need equal DNAs. E.g. link to this video > About insurance companies, they're legally forbidden to use such data. This is a very weak argument. There's a long history of companies doing illegal things, and even if it's illegal today it doesn't mean it'll be illegal tomorrow.…
View on Hacker News