This case, on the Interwebs today, highlights a continuing trend in the use and usefulness of DNA evidence and DNA-matching databases. On the facts, a man was arrested for a domestic violence offense, in a jurisdiction whose existing booking procedures for such an offense entail taking DNA samples and running them in a database to determine if the samples will match the arrestee to other, prior crimes.
The search query led to hits somewhat matching anonymous forensic DNA samples from Miami area rapes in the 1980s. These were sufficient to alert the police they should be looking at close relatives of the arrestee, and sure enough, surveillance leading to samples of his father's DNA ended up connecting the arrestee's father to a string of old rapes attributed to "the Pillowcase Rapist."
As DNA matching develops, criminals simply can't be careful enough to be certain of avoiding detection. If any family member misbehaves and is sampled, or if any family member innocently contributes DNA to a genealogical site, the police may be put on the trail of criminals who are not themselves in any DNA database.
As DNA databases are extended by voluntary and involuntary sampling, criminals who have left any trace DNA at prior crime scenes will be increasingly at risk of detection. Perhaps state and local governmrnts will even find ways to accelerate this outcome, as, for example, by requiring preservation of DNA samples as a part of all official birth and death records. Eventually, our society could reach a point where escaping detection for a considerable range of crimes could become virtually impossible.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/pillowcase-rapist-officials-believe-theyve-found-man-who-terrorized-south-florida-in-the-1980s/ar-BBZgTUy
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