I don’t know that that’s true. I belong to a lot of Facebook genealogy groups, and police use of DNA is discussed now and again. GEDmatch is quite clear about it. While the general public who get their DNA done might not be aware, genealogists are, I think.
So, a group of people interested in generics is aware of the law enforcement use of genetic material.
How does that translate to the unwashed masses?
Be careful of self selection bias.
LSLGuy specified “users of genealogy sites.” I was challenging his assertion anecdotally rather than providing a definitive statement. I don’t think it’s obviously one way or the other: we can’t assume ignorance or knowledge without more evidence.
My understanding is that in most of the cases where law enforcement identified a criminal by using a DNA database, what they found in the database were relatives of the suspect, not the suspect himself. They were then able to triangulate, so to speak, on the suspect based on his relationships to the people in the database. The suspect may have never used a genealogy site at all, nor submitted his DNA anywhere, but was still identified.
There are two types of DNA databases: 1. The genealogy type databases used in this thread and 2. The Combined DNA Index System maintained by the FBI.
I think the vast majority of DNA database searches by law enforcement are of the second type–and those are of the criminal himself.
Correct.
The nice thing about the FBI one is that you can input the DNA and it will (try to) find the match(es).
Using a Private Corporate one means having an idea of who the match is and getting a court order. Way less useful.
Perhaps he had a fixation on one of the girls:
Generally when you kill someone who doesn’t return your call that’s probably a reasonable conclusion.
That’s not my understanding at all. Rather, the idea is to—with the complicity of the private service—input a suspect sample with no clear suspect, and then see if any matches come in, even just as extended family, which may in turn narrow down the list of suspects to “literally have the people on the planet according to gender” to “the finite number of people who may count Johnny Strand as a third cousin, of which we may then winnow down by age, location, and perhaps criminal history to determine if any one of those hundred or so individuals stands out to us.”
Or maybe that was just part of his “research” into the experience of being a criminal. What’s it like to stalk someone? If so, one might hope he kept a record of his “research” somewhere.
The news reported that he followed all 3 of the women on social media and he went to the restaurant where 2 of them worked.
A polystalker? I’m no expert but I had the impression they obsess about one person.
What would be interesting to know is if Bryan followed the other two girls at the house and how many females in total in the local area he was following.
Given his past behavior toward women at the brewery in Pennsylvania I’d say we have an incel psychopath on our hands…
Do you have a link? First they suspected one woman had a stalker. Just a couple days ago they confirmed he was repeatedly trying to get one of the women to friend him, but she declined. All three is a big step up.
Bryan Kohberger Followed All 3 Female Idaho Victims on Instagram
-
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four Idaho college students in their beds last November, followed all three of the female victims on Instagram — but they didn’t follow him back.
-
Authorities have not said if the victims knew Kohberger, but the suspect’s now-deleted Instagram account — which was reviewed by PEOPLE before it was removed — followed the accounts of Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle.
-
Kohberger allegedly messaged one of the three female victims repeatedly two weeks before the slayings, an investigator familiar with the case previously told PEOPLE.
Idaho Suspect Bryan Kohberger Visited Restaurant Where 2 Victims Worked ‘at Least Twice’ Before Killings.
-
According to a former employee at the Mad Greek restaurant in Moscow, Idaho, Bryan Kohberger came in at least twice to grab vegan pizza.
-
In the weeks before the slayings of four University of Idaho students last November, the man now accused of killing them allegedly ate at the restaurant where two of the victims worked.
-
According to a former employee at the Mad Greek restaurant in Moscow, Idaho, Bryan Kohberger came in at least twice to grab vegan pizza. Two of the victims — Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle — were servers at the restaurant.
-
It’s unclear if either woman ever waited on Kohberger, or if they even interacted, but PEOPLE confirms that a now-deleted account that appeared to belong to Kohberger once followed both Mogen and Kernodle on Instagram along with the third female murder victim, Kaylee Goncalves.
Does following someone on Instragram mean more that “I am aware of this person’s existence” ? I mean, that’s significant enough here, but I’m not sure you can read more into it than that.
poie
Lawyers can chime in. it’s a small piece of evidence in what I expect to be a significant amount. Whether or not it can be admissible would probably involve establishing a methodology to track the victims. If they posted their presence at the food truck and he shows up there’s a pattern of this then I’d guess it would be admissible.
Thanks for the link. Not looking too god for old Bryan. He apparently learned nothing from his criminal forensics classes.
That’s about it. However, since they apparently found this on his computer, they should be able to go thru his history and see how often he visited their pages. As I said, he didn’t appear to learn much from his forensics classes.
If he’s as much of an incel as he seems, I wonder if he purposely chose to attack when the boyfriend was there. He can’t get a word in with any of these women and here’s a Chad hanging out with this group of Stacys in all the Instagram photos and spending the night in the house. Probably seemed like the perfect group to target for an incel.
There’s also a lot of missing context, here. If he followed every woman in Moscow, well, that’s pretty pathetic, but it doesn’t make him a suspect. If he followed the three women who ended up killed, and nobody else, then that looks very different.