[bernawil]

Was there ever a case of a convict getting caught by their direct DNA being found in one of these databases? I thought all cases where correlated from relatives. Government gets DNA sample, asks the databases: 'who do you know that's a genetic relative of this suspect?' and then they go and interrogate that person's every third cousin. You can't keep your family tree private, your birth certificate is out there. Opting out of 23andMe won't help you here.

[runjake]

A couple. One infamous case was the Golden State Killer[1] case. Though in that case, it was GEDmatch, not 23and me -- similar service, though.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_James_DeAngelo#Investig...