[woodbutcher1963]

Many of these cases are now being made because of people submitting their DNA to various companies like 23 and ME.
Your DNA becomes part of the public record when you do this. Then the police get a partial match on some old cold case. They compare the DNA that they may have from 1973 to the person who summited their DNA to 23 and ME. It is not usually the person who summited the DNA sample but some relative who is a brother/sister cousin to that person who MAY have been a “person of interest” back in then but they could never prove the link.

[Beowulf9]

That’s pretty interesting. So people trying to find out their ancestry are actually getting into the data banks and lending a helping hand to those investigators looking for criminals.

Wow.

[SeeSharp]

Many of these cases are now being made because of people submitting their DNA to various companies like 23 and ME.

It goes beyond that. If one of your close relatives submits their DNA the police can detect a close match and follow that to find the guilty party.

[MayflowerMadam]

Yes. This week we watched the update on how they caught the Golden State Killer. All exactly as you described.