Joseph Sutherland, 62, confessed after investigators demanded a sample of his blood for genetic testing, court documents show
A Northern Ontario man was convicted this week of murdering two women 40 years ago, after police tracked him down with a new investigative technique that uses crime-scene DNA to close in on suspects by mapping their family trees.
Police arrived on Mr. Sutherland’s doorstep this past November after decades of stalled progress in their investigation of the deaths. They had used a technique known as investigative genetic genealogy to determine that DNA evidence left at the crime scenes by the killer had to belong either to Mr. Sutherland or one of his brothers.
The investigation stalled until police gained access to genetic genealogy. The technique involves searching databases of genetic information controlled by private corporations. These businesses build their databases by encouraging individual customers of consumer genetic testing companies, such asand 23andMe, to hand over their genealogical profiles for potential use in law enforcement searches.
“A police investigation resulted in the elimination of four out of the five Sutherland brothers as the source of the crime scene DNA,” the agreed statement says. Although critics fear genetic genealogy may erode privacy, police are embracing the technique as an investigative tool. Det. Smith said Toronto Police Service policy is to retain crime-scene DNA evidence for decades. ”Anything unsolved,” he said, “we keep for 100 years minimum.”
Several Ontario killers have been identified using genetic genealogy in the past three years, including a North Bay-area man who was convicted of a 1980s homicide and a Sudbury man who was convicted of a 1990s killing.
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