How it works: Genealogists upload the sequences of DNA left at a crime scene to a large database of genetic profiles to find relatives of an unknown suspect. Then they zero in on him (yes, they’re all men, so far) by building a family tree and using that information to inform traditional detective work.
Implications?: You bet. It appears police can now ID a criminal within weeks of a crime. What’s more, the Utah case is the first time the tool was used to investigate a lesser crime than murder.
“I believe this will be the trend,” says CeCe Moore, the genealogist and DNA detective who worked the Monnett case. She thinks searching genetic databases soon after crimes are committed will save police resources and could even have stopped this rapist from striking again.