Does anyone have any more information on this? How do the police get access to DNA from genealogical databases? Do they need a warrant for a specific persons DNA? Do the police check for matches or does the company?
This is more than that: it wasnt his dna, it was one of his relatives dna on the site that got him found.
Im guessing that any relative has a right to divulge his dna and rat out a blood relative in a situation like this, but I doubt people actually consent to that use when they are looking at a genealogy site.
http://abc7news.com/dna-that-cracked-golden-state-killer-cas... This article states that the main DNA sites and Ancestry.com didn't release the information, so I'm curious about where it came from as well. Though it does say they'll comply with 'valid legal requests' it also says they weren't contacted.
There are public databases that allow you to specify your DNA haploids and will show you matches. I linked to one in another comment. They likely used that specific site, although there are other sites that provide the same functionality.