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B1 BRE HAPPY NEW YEAR! #01897214 COMMUNITY 831.212.9648 Bailey Properties Sunday, January 19, 2020 >> MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/SCSENTINEL AND TWITTER.COM/SCSENTINEL santacruzsentinel.com » CRIME Roots in ‘forensic genealogy’

By Amanda Heidt KEY EVENTS [email protected] Central Coast duo unravels cold tools. Rasmussen died in 2010 cases while serving a 15-year sentence SANTA CRUZ >> When they’re plan- in California’s High Desert State ning to rob a liquor store, most The emerging field of forensic genealogy has accelerated rapidly Prison for the murder of his criminals think to wear gloves girlfriend, Eunsoon Jun. and cover their faces. But few of in the last few years, thanks in them commit to shaving their large part to two Central Coast April 2018: Rae-Venter identifies heads to avoid leaving behind researchers. Here are some key Joseph James DeAngelo, now 74 even a single strand of hair. events: and awaiting trial, as the Golden In the future, however, they May 2017: Richard “Ed” Green, a State Killer. may want to add that task to their UC Santa Cruz associate professor May 2019: GEDmatch, a Florida modus operandi. Packed with of biomolecular engineering, uses company that allows its users to DNA, hair is quickly becoming a hair without roots to identify compare genetic testing results powerful source to help catch law- 3-year-old “Miranda Eve” as from different DNA companies, breakers. Edith Howard Cook, a member restricts access to its database Hair has been notoriously of a prominent 19th century Bay by law enforcement in response to tricky to analyze, but a new ap- Area family whose body was public concerns over privacy. proach by UC Santa Cruz re- found in a casket beneath a San June 2019: After working the RANDY VAZQUEZ — BAY AREA NEWS GROUP searchers — pulling DNA from Francisco home in 2016. The news Bear Brook case together for samples that are damaged or coverage led Monterey Peninsula almost two years, Rae-Venter and Richard “Ed” Green, an associate professor of biomolecular engineering contaminated — is expanding genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter Green positively identify three at UC Santa Cruz, has developed tools to decipher ancient DNA, helping the available pool of forensic evi- to contact Green for help in of the four victims as Marlyse solve long-cold cases, dence. DNA and ancestry records identifying the four victims in New Elizabeth Honeychurch, 24, and known for his work on the re- ily tree of a woman kidnapped as are now being used together to Hampshire’s Bear Brook murders daughters Marie Elizabeth Vaughn, mains of Neanderthals, has de- a child and later abandoned in a build family trees to identify rot- from the late ’70s. 6, and Sarah Lynn McWaters, 1. veloped tools to decipher ancient Scotts Valley mobile home park, ten apples among their branches. August 2017: Rae-Venter sends September 2019: Building on the DNA — often hundreds of thou- Rae-Venter had linked the alleged But while the rapidly emerg- hair samples from the victims of duo’s successes, Green co-founds sands of years old. abductor, Terry Peder Rasmussen, ing field of “forensic genealogy” the alleged Bear Brook serial killer, Astrea Forensics in Santa Cruz Before gaining recognition by to the four unsolved Bear Brook is solving long-cold cases, it’s also Terry Peder Rasmussen, to Green along with fellow paleogeneticist identifying Joseph James DeAn- murders in New Hampshire in the raising thorny ethical questions for analysis using new forensic Kelly Harkins Kincaid. gelo, the alleged Golden State late ’70s. DNA from the victims’ about privacy. We all leave traces Killer, Rae-Venter was a retiree bones, however, was too damaged of ourselves wherever we go. they have in the way of evidence,” ard “Ed” Green, an associate pro- practicing genealogy in her Mon- to establish the identity of the vic- “Law enforcement gets excited said genealogist Barbara Rae-Ven- fessor of biomolecular engineer- terey Peninsula home. tims, and Rasmussen had died about hair because often it’s all ter, who has teamed up with Rich- ing at UC Santa Cruz. Green, While reconstructing the fam- GENEALOGY >> PAGE 3

ELDER LAW COMMUTE OUR OCEAN BACKYARD Lady friend Lifeguards died without SUNSET SKY will, annuity come to overlooked the rescue By 6 p.m. on July 1, 1997, Jack Dear Len & Rosie, Lish was still perched very un- I am a senior gent whose lady comfortably on the hull of his friend died almost a year ago overturned 14-foot without a will. We aluminum boat. had lived together Remember this in California for isn’t a young kid, 18 years. Every- but a guy in his thing she had was mid-70s. He had in joint accounts capsized about with me. But I Gary seven hours earlier McNichol Griggs & Tillem later discovered following the im- an annuity she pact with a large had overlooked wave several miles southeast of and no doubt forgotten about. Capitola. He had gotten much The beneficiaries of the annu- colder by now and had drifted ity have been dead for years. She nearly 5 miles since the incident has no living relatives except for and found himself off of Man- a couple of half-nephews in Ne- resa State Beach. braska she has not seen in more Being midsummer, Jack could than years. Since I was closest see and hear people still swim- to her and I took care her, could ming and playing in the water I be appointed executor so I can along the beach, but no one saw get the annuity? I have no idea him on his overturned boat. He what it’s worth. tried to stand on the hull and Tom shout in order to be seen, but al- Dear Tom, most immediately fell off into Today, non-traditional re- the water. He was also being lationships are as common as carried farther south and into marriage. Unfortunately for you, deeper water and he knew it the law hasn’t been updated to would get dark before too long, take your relationship into ac- which would make a rescue in- count regarding the disposi- creasingly unlikely. tion of your lady friend’s estate. About this time, Vern Martin, If all of the beneficiaries named a lifeguard on duty at Manresa in the annuity are deceased, Beach, thought he heard a weak then the annuity pays into her call or voice from offshore, but probate estate. Since there’s no didn’t immediately notice any- will, the probate estate goes to thing. A woman nearby walked your friend’s blood relatives, and over to Vern and told him that you’re not one of them. she thought she had seen an ob- There’s no such thing as com- ject, something red some dis- mon law marriage in California, tance offshore that appeared and that means your legal rights and disappeared as the swells against your friend’s estate are rolled by. This led the lifeguard the same as that of any friend, to climb onto his tower and get neighbor, casual acquaintance out his binoculars. After a short and stranger. The only claim time, Vern also noticed the red you have against her estate is of Jack’s parka about a mile off- if she owed you money. But it’s shore against the gray blue of not enough for you to show that the ocean. He ran to his patrol you provided her care and that SHMUEL THALER — SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL vehicle that was parked near you ought to be compensated for A fiery sunset colors the sky above the commute home at the corner of Highway 1 and Mis- the tower and flashed his lights it — you have to show that she offshore in an effort to let Jack LEN & ROSIE >> PAGE 2 sion Street in Santa Cruz. GRIGGS >> PAGE 3

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Heritage found that 60 per- bor Café, Jack and cent of Americans are iden- Clara again praised and Genealogy tifiable through family mem- Griggs thanked the young life- FROM PAGE 1 bers even if they never used FROM PAGE 1 guard crew who had re- DNA kits themselves. sponded so quickly and in California’s High Desert Critics of the new tools know that he had finally saved Jack’s life. Asked State Prison in 2010. claim that as more people been seen. if he would do anything Rae-Venter was stuck, use the kits and build out Vern and another life- different the next time unsure of how to unravel DNA databases, police could guard on the beach at he went out fishing, Jack the case, when she read a eventually track anyone. the time, Haven Livings- said “I’ll sure as heck news story about Green. Rebecca Jeschke, an ana- ton, informed Head State wear a whistle around my “I got so excited because lyst with the Electronic Fron- Lifeguard Jason Hajduk neck from now on.” he kept talking about hair,” tier Foundation in San Fran- (now the fire chief for the There are a large num- Rae-Venter said. cisco, warns that access to City of Santa Cruz) of the ber of things that can Because hair doesn’t de- databases could prompt po- situation and then ran wrong on any boat once grade much over time, she LIPO CHING — BAY AREA NEWS GROUP lice to “overcollect” genetic to their inflatable Zodiac you get a few miles off- had samples from each vic- Barbara Rae-Venter, a retired intellectual property attorney material. The digital rights rescue boat, which was shore, and the swell is of- tim but no way to analyze and genealogist living on the Monterey Peninsula, helped group is now suing the U.S. fortunately on the beach ten considerably larger. them. Hair had been use- crack the Golden State Killer case. Department of Homeland Se- nearby. They quickly got A catalog of ship losses ful evidence only if its root, curity over its collection of their boat into the wa- compiled by the Mon- pulled from the follicle, was But DNA from cold cases Justice recently released its DNA from migrants at the ter and were, fortunately, terey Bay National Ma- still attached. generate hits less than 1% of first interim policy on foren- U.S.-Mexico border. able to locate Jack within rine Sanctuary lists 463 Green and his team, how- the time. sic genealogy, an initial step “DNA holds private and about 20 minutes of the individual lost vessels in ever, had recently pulled us- The reason is that the toward standardizing the intensely personal informa- time they first spotted sanctuary waters. able DNA from a strand of FBI’s system needs high- practice. The policy states tion,” Jeschke said, adding him. Only 25 of these met hair without its root, long quality, detectable DNA from that investigators of violent that the solution might be a Jack was cold and also their end along the Santa thought to be impossible. a single person — a tough crimes who have exhausted system of checks on law en- bloody from being cut Cruz County coastline, “Forensic samples can and often unreachable stan- traditional methods such as forcement’s access to data- by the sharp aluminum however, with most of be seen as really easy an- dard. Many cases go cold be- fingerprinting may now con- bases, including “added over- keel of his boat after over them lost along the rug- cient DNA samples (to ana- cause the DNA is old or dam- sider genealogy. sight from judges or other seven hours lying on top ged Big Sur coast. Most lyze) because they’re so much aged, contaminated by bac- In Santa Clara County, specialists.” of it. With a little effort, of these accounts listed younger, even in cold cases,” terial DNA or mixed with cold case criminalist Kevin In response to public con- Vern and Haven got him the cause of loss as foun- Green said during a recent material from multiple indi- Kellogg has already used fo- cern, GEDmatch changed its into their Zodiac, and dering or sinking off- interview in his UCSC office. viduals. rensic genealogy to solve sev- default policy last May by ex- with another lifeguard, shore, with a handful of Green and Rae-Venter be- Astrea’s proprietary meth- eral cases, including the 1973 cluding all 1.25 million pro- Cory Miller, wrapped him others stranded on the gan analyzing hair from the ods reconstruct entire ge- strangling murder of 21-year- files from law enforcement in blankets and took care shoreline. The SS Palo Bear Brook murders in 2017 nomes — the total genetic old Stanford graduate stu- matching. Users must now of his cuts. In an inter- Alto at Seacliff, while and ultimately identified material in each cell — from dent Leslie Marie Perlov. “opt in” after reading new view with Ed Larson soon suffering the effects of a three of the four victims last DNA fragments. By sequenc- John Arthur Getreu, explanations about how their after the rescue, Jack was century of wear and tear, June. Using similar meth- ing the whole genome, rather a 74-year-old former Boy data will be used. As a result, impressed with the com- is the only one of the lot ods, Rae-Venter then named than just 20 markers, the Scouts leader and “exalted investigators can now access passion and profession- that was intentionally DeAngelo, then 72, who is new breed of forensic gene- ruler” of the Fremont Elks just 190,000 profiles. alism of these young life- stranded, and the only now awaiting trial for a se- alogists can often identify Lodge, now stands accused Rae-Venter said many guards who had found one, other than a barge ries of murders committed in people the FBI cannot. of killing Perlov and dump- cases that she solved “would and rescued him from at the Salinas River California from 1976 to 1986. Access to DNA data is ing her body in the Palo remain cold under these new what could easily have mouth, still visible at the The duo’s success has growing. Companies such as Alto hills. As the result of restrictions.” been the story of another surface today along the prompted Green to found a 23andMe and Ancestry.com DNA tests, Getreu is now Analysis of 2018 FBI data mariner lost at sea. Monterey Bay shoreline. company, Astrea Forensics, have sequenced the genomes also charged in San Mateo by the Murder Accountabil- Once on the beach, I get requests from along with fellow paleogenet- of more than 30 million peo- County in the 1974 stran- ity Project determined that Jack asked that they get time to time about the icist Kelly Harkins Kincaid, ple in the last decade. gling death of 21-year-old Ja- 40% of U.S. homicides go hold of his wife, Clara, availability of earlier col- a former UCSC postdoctoral The firms’ databases are net Ann Taylor, the daughter unsolved. That’s more than who was still on the umns and wanted read- researcher who is now the private, but customers can of former Stanford football 250,000 cases since 1980. wharf in Capitola with ers to know that both company’s CEO. The com- upload their profiles to third- coach Chuck Taylor. Solving even 1% of those no idea of what had hap- Our Ocean Backyard Vol- pany, based in Santa Cruz, party sites like GEDmatch, a The new tools “bring ex- using forensic genealogy pened. Jason contacted ume 1 (the first six years), has already solved dozens of Florida company that allows citement to cold cases where would close thousands of the wharf by radio, and and Our Ocean Backyard cases and continues to work its users to compare genetic we thought there was no an- cases. three lifeguards went Volume 2 (the next four on dozens more. testing results from different swer,” Kellogg said. Each day seems to bring back out to the over- years) are available at the “There is a market for DNA companies and use ge- Similarly, as the Santa a new ethical challenge in turned boat, turned gift shop at the Seymour this,” Green said. “There’s a nealogy to reconstruct fam- Cruz County Sheriff’s Of- the new field, but many it over, and then with Marine Discovery Center public service demand and a ily trees. fice processes “more DNA ethical experts believe that the help of Philip Del- and at Bookshop Santa larger social mission.” Applied to forensics, it than ever before,” Forensic a way can be found to bal- ano, the operator of Ves- Cruz. For the last few decades, becomes an amazing tech- Services Supervisor Laura ance the new technology’s sel Assist, towed Jack’s profiles of criminal suspects nique. The so-called Buck- Walker says there is a new risks and rewards. boat back to the Capi- Gary Griggs is a have been generated through skin Girl, dumped along an interest in forensic gene- “We’re still finding our tola wharf. Distinguished Professor a process called DNA finger- Ohio road in 1981, had re- alogy. The county plans to way through to where the Clara Lish drove to of Earth and Planetary printing. It relies on a per- mained unidentified for build a new DNA analysis boundaries are going to be,” Manresa Beach and, at 7 Sciences at UC Santa son’s unique pattern across 37 years. But in only four wing in its crime lab within said bioethicist Amy Mc- p.m., nearly 12 hours af- Cruz. He can be reached 20 genetic markers — short hours, Colleen Fitzpatrick, three years. Guire of Baylor College of ter Jack started on his at [email protected]. For sections of DNA that vary be- co-founder of the DNA Doe But as the field advances, Medicine in Houston. “But calm weather day of fish- past Ocean Backyard tween individuals. Suspects Project in Sebastopol, identi- opponents of forensic gene- if it’s done well, if it’s done ing, they were reunited. columns, visit http:// entered into the FBI’s crim- fied her in 2018 as 21-year-old alogy are raising ethical is- right, I feel fairly convinced He was still wet, a little seymourcenter.ucsc. inal database are compared Marcia Lenore King. sues. A 2018 study by the that the actual privacy risks bloodied, but alive. edu/about-us/news/our- against 16 million profiles. The U.S. Department of DNA testing company My- are fairly minimal.” Later in the Har- ocean-backyard-archive/.

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