Announcement from DNA Doe Project -- Julie Doe's getting her DNA extracted!

[moriah]

7. The DNA Doe Project was the first to develop the "forensic genealogy" techniques...

...that have resulted in arrests for the Golden State Killer and the murderer of a child I believe out of... Ohio? Someone posted about it.

What they do is get a lab to extract DNA not to get the CODIS-tagged SNPs, but the ones used in commercial DNA tests from companies like Ancestry and 23andMe. When working with extremely degraded DNA sources, they may have to run several sequencing attempts, which Margaret Press described as like combining two or more low-resolution images to get a better total image.

But then they create a profile, incomplete though it may be, in the data format used by the commercial DNA testing companies for consumers to download their DNA, and upload it to a site called GEDMatch. This is a site where people who have taken Ancestry and 23AndMe tests have voluntarily uploaded their own DNA and family trees.

It may help the search dramatically that Julie has a Y-chromosome -- in identifying "Joseph Newton Chandler III" as Ivan Nichols, the Y-chromosome by itself can reveal a lot, and when they saw cousin matches with the Nichols surname, it helped them narrow down the right set of great-grandparents, etc.