Identification of a suspect for the Golden State Killer was awarded the "DNA Hit the Year" in 2018 and hailed as "The Greatest Crime Fighting Breakthrough in Decades.  This presentation will cover the impact of the Golden State Killer case for law enforcement on solving violent crimes, as well as reviewing what Investigative Genetic Genealogy is, some of the basics of Direct to Consumer DNA testing, and take a peak behind the curtain as to how the Golden State Killer case and others were solved using Investigative Genetic Genealogy.

Presenter Bio

Barbara Rae-Venter, Genetic Geneologist

Barbara Rae-Venter, J.D., Ph.D., is a retired intellectual property attorney who specialized in the patenting of biotechnology inventions. She earned a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin Law School and a B.A. double major in Psychology and Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California at San Diego.Barbara is licensed to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office and the State Bar of California (inactive). Barbara’s identification of the mother of Lisa Jensen, abducted in infancy and then abandoned by her abductor as a 5 year old, led to identification of a suspect for the murder of the Allenstown Four in Allenstown, NH. Barbara subsequently determined the true identify of Lisa’s abductor, a man of many aliases, as Terry Peder Rasmussen. She has also confirmed the identities of three of the four Allenstown victims using a DNA profile obtained from nuclear DNA extracted from rootless hair. Using the same technique as she used to identify Lisa and Rasmussen, Barbara worked with the FBI to identify Joseph James DeAngelo as the notorious Golden State Killer. The technique Barbara, dubbed “Investigative Genetic Genealogy”, is now being used to solve many previously “unsolvable” cold cases. Barbara herself has assisted in solving an additional approximately 50 cold cases.For her work, Barbara was recognized by the journal Nature as one of “10 people Who Mattered In Science In 2018.” She has also been recognized as one of Time100’s Most Influential People of 2019.

Links:

She Helped Crack the Golden State Killer Case. Here’s What She’s Going to Do Next. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Nature’s 10

About Me – Barbara Rae-Venter (genealogyconsult.com)