A little story about buying & selling genetic data in light of 23andMe's impending bankruptcy. (Also told, I must say, in my book, Inside the Cell.) In the late 1990s, the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation -- a nonprofit aimed at genetic research -- solicited DNA samples from volunteers. - ThreadSky

erinmurphyslaw.bsky.social • 72 days ago

A little story about buying & selling genetic data in light of 23andMe's impending bankruptcy. (Also told, I must say, in my book, Inside the Cell.)

In the late 1990s, the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation -- a nonprofit aimed at genetic research -- solicited DNA samples from volunteers.

Comments

erinmurphyslaw.bsky.social•72 days ago

The pitch was that those samples would unlock health and other research benefits. By the 2000s, Sorenson was a for-profit company. By 2012, https://Ancestry.com had formed, and purchased all of Sorenson's genetic data outright as a way of building its consumer product of recreational genetics.

erinmurphyslaw.bsky.social•72 days ago

Which is how, in 2014, investigators trying to solve a cold rape/murder in Idaho came to use Ancestry to try to find a "genetic relative" of the killer. Police actually already had two people in custody they thought did the crime, but as it happened neither of their DNA matched that from the scene.

erinmurphyslaw.bsky.social•72 days ago

But, the mother of the victim came to believe that rather than there being a third perp at large, the two men were in fact innocent. Sorenson tested the crime scene sample, and then the detective used Ancestry's database to find a match. A subpoena convinced Ancestry to unmask the identity.

erinmurphyslaw.bsky.social•72 days ago

Lo and behold, it matched a man in Louisiana who was too old to have done the murder. But his son seem to tick all the boxes: he lived down South but had connections to Idaho, and in fact to the town next to the one the victim lived in. He was two years younger than the victim at the time.

erinmurphyslaw.bsky.social•72 days ago

His name, "Mike," matched one of the names thrown out as the possible killer by the arrested men when interrogated about the murder. And most chillingly, he made movies for a living -- murder movies that even included the killing of a young girl.

erinmurphyslaw.bsky.social•72 days ago

In this case, police actually got a warrant to compel the son to give his DNA. Which, in the end, did NOT match that of the killer -- it had all been eerie coincidence. He was dragged into a homicide investigation all because his father long ago had thought he was helping others by giving up his DNA

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply