Genealogy site helps investigators close cold case (NM-Assault/rape)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | January 16, 2020 | Elise Kaplan

[CedarDave]

A swarm of special agents knocked on the door of the sprawling South Valley home where 23-year-old Angel Gurule lived with his parents, wife and several dogs.

It had been a little more than four years since a woman — on a Christmas Eve afternoon jog along a Bosque path — was thrown to the ground and violently raped by a stranger who tackled her from behind.

Gurule, who was charged with the rape Wednesday, apparently had no idea he was on investigators’ radar.

Let alone that his second cousin twice removed — a man in his 60s who lives in California and was curious about his heritage — would be the missing link that brought investigators to Gurule’s door Wednesday.

The two men had never met and likely did not know of each other’s existence.

It’s a landmark case in the state, with the District Attorney’s Office saying Thursday that this is likely the first one using forensic genetic genealogy in New Mexico.

The DA’s investigators uploaded the suspect’s DNA into a commercial database similar to ancestry.com or 23andme.com that is used by members of the public to trace their roots, find relatives and build a family tree.

“He wasn’t even aware there was a police report in this matter,” said Kyle Hartsock, the special agent in charge for the District Attorney’s Office. ...

At a news conference, Hartsock said Gurule still lives less than a half-mile from where the attack occurred. When he was interviewed, Hartsock said, he confessed to the crime and showed investigators where it was committed, even referencing some of the phrases the victim had told detectives she had said.

Gurule is charged with criminal sexual penetration and was booked into the county jail Wednesday night.

[CedarDave]

You have to read the entire story - it is the equivalent of a well written crime novel. After the woman was raped, she immediately went to the hospital and doctors obtained a semen sample. His DNA was not in the crime database so at that time it was a dead end.

After reading about genealogy helping find a suspect accused of multiple murders and rapes in California, ABQ investigators uploaded his DNA sample into a genealogy database website. It turned out Gurule’s second cousin twice removed — on a hunt for his paternal grandfather’s ancestry — uploaded his DNA and his fathers into the GEDmatch.com database. The cousin lived in Southern California, had never been to New Mexico and did not know Gurule. The father's and son's DNA helped narrow down the family match.

Skipping ahead in the story, the rape victim is an artist and gave investigators a dead-on sketch of the attacker. The last link and the one that got Gurule arrested was that his wife was in the hospital and investigators followed him, obtained a discarded cup he used, and the DNA matched.

[centurion316]

Moral of the story: don’t rape a stranger and expect to get away with it. The police may catch you.

[Bonemaker]

Another moral for women is not to go jogging any damn place you please. In any case, carry protection of some sort...something that hurts.

[CedarDave]

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[northside]

Can read here without paywall. http://archive.is/jimtG

[DesertRhino]

Wow, Good work. Damned monster.

[Right2BareArms]

She was jogging in the afternoon on Christmas Eve.

[gattaca]

I’m glad he was caught.