DNA search for Calif. serial killer led to wrong man in Oregon

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Investigators hunting the so-called Golden State Killer turned to genetic websites last year but misidentified an Oregon man as a potential suspect.

A year later, after using a similar technique, investigators say they are confident they’ve caught the serial rapist and killer who eluded capture for decades.

Court records obtained by The Associated Press showed investigators in Clackamas County convinced a judge in March 2017 to order the 73-year-old man to provide a DNA sample.

Investigators cited a rare genetic marker, which the Oregon man shared with the killer.

This week, police say they arrested the right man for a dozen killings and 50 rapes from 1976 to 1986. He’s Joseph DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former policeman.

The daughter of the man misidentified as a possible suspect in the so-called Golden State Killer case wasn’t informed authorities were taking a DNA sample from her father, but later helped in the investigation.

The woman said Friday that investigators contacted her in April 2017 and told her they had taken a DNA sample from her 73-year-old father.

They took the sample from the man, who is in extremely poor health, while he was in his room at a rehabilitation facility.

The woman, an amateur genealogist, said she helped investigators by parsing the family’s genetic tree as they searched for other potential suspects.

The woman spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because she did not want the family’s name publicly linked to the case.

The company whose genetic website was used by investigators who misidentified the possible suspect says it was never contacted by law enforcement.

A spokeswoman for FamilyTreeDNA.com, which operates YSearch.org, says Friday that the company takes the privacy of its customers seriously.

But, the company says it supports “ethically and legally justified uses of groundbreaking advancements of scientific research in genetics and genealogy.”

Court records obtained by The Associated Press showed that investigators used a genetic profile based off DNA from crime scenes linked to the serial killer and compared it to information from YSearch.org.

Simi Valley police want to know whether the so-called Golden State Killer suspect strangled a mother and her 4-year-old son four decades ago – crimes for which an innocent man spent 29 years in prison.

Police in the suburb near Los Angeles want to check the DNA profile of DeAngelo. They want to know whether he might be linked to the deaths of Rhonda Wicht and her son, Donald. She was beaten, raped and strangled. The boy was smothered in his sleep.

The woman’s boyfriend, Craig Coley, was convicted but released from prison last fall after DNA evidence cleared him.

The lawyer for DeAngelo said he should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Public defender Diane Howard told reporters outside a courtroom Friday that it feels like DeAngelo has already been tried in the press.

DeAngelo has been charged with eight counts of murder.

He did not enter a plea Friday at his arraignment on two of those counts in Sacramento County Superior Court.

DeAngelo appeared in court handcuffed in a wheelchair and was wearing an orange jumpsuit. He has been denied bail.