{"id":13185,"date":"2016-03-27T08:03:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T15:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/law-enforcement-investigators-seek-out-private-dna-databases\/"},"modified":"2016-03-27T08:03:43","modified_gmt":"2016-03-27T15:03:43","slug":"law-enforcement-investigators-seek-out-private-dna-databases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/law-enforcement-investigators-seek-out-private-dna-databases\/","title":{"rendered":"Law enforcement investigators seek out private DNA databases"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014<\/strong> Investigators are broadening their DNA searches beyond government databases and demanding genetic information from companies that do ancestry research for their customers.<\/p>\n

Two major companies that research family lineage for fees around $200 say that over the last two years, they have received law enforcement demands for genetic information stored in their DNA databases.<\/p>\n

Ancestry.com and competitor 23andme report a total of five requests from law agencies for the genetic material of six individuals in their growing databases of hundreds of thousands. Ancestry.com turned over one person\u2019s data for an investigation into the murder and rape of an 18-year-old woman in Idaho Falls, Idaho. 23andme has received four other court orders but persuaded investigators to withdraw the requests.<\/p>\n

The companies say law enforcement demands for genetic information are rare.<\/p>\n

But privacy advocates and experts are concerned that genetic information turned over for medical, family history research or other highly personal reasons could be misused by investigators\u2014 and that the few known cases could be the start of a trend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be more requests as time goes on and the technology evolves,\u201d said New York University law professor Erin Murphy, author of \u201cInside The Cell: The Dark Side of Forensic DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law enforcement agencies across the country have access to growing state and national databases with millions of genetic samples of convicted offenders and arrestees.<\/p>\n

Investigators compare DNA found at crime scenes against the genetic samples in the government databases. They look at 13 distinct locations in a DNA sample, seeking exact matches at each location to pair a suspect with genetic material at the crime scene.<\/p>\n

Ancestry.com and 23andme officials say their databases won\u2019t be useful to most criminal investigations because they analyze regions of DNA different from the locations forensic experts explore. Still, that hasn\u2019t stopped investigators stumped on cold cases from contacting the companies for help.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2014, court documents show, the Idaho Falls Police Department obtained a warrant to seize genetic information from Ancestry.com in connection with the 1996 rape and murder of Angie Dodge.<\/p>\n

In 1998, Christopher Tapp was sentenced to life in prison for Dodge\u2019s murder and rape, but he\u2019s appealing his conviction saying his confession was coerced. Police are still working the case at the insistence of Dodge\u2019s mother and others because the only DNA found on her body was not Tapp\u2019s and investigators believe another suspect also was involved.<\/p>\n

Idaho Falls police sent the DNA sample to Ancestry.com in 2014 to process. Ancestry emailed the results to the police without naming anyone in the company\u2019s database, which was only partially accessible to the public.<\/p>\n

The results, however, established a close, though not exact, match. Believing the killer could be a relative of the DNA donor, police obtained a warrant to compel the company to turn over the donor\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hurdles for this should be extremely high, like getting a warrant for a wiretap, because it is an invasion of privacy,\u201d said Greg Hampikian, a Boise State University biology professor and forensic DNA expert assisting with efforts to exonerate Tapp.<\/p>\n

Hampikian said there has to be \u201ca compelling public safety issue\u201d and judge\u2019s approval before calling on companies to turn over genetic information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, there is a killer-rapist still out there and a man in prison for murder claiming innocence,\u201d Hampikian said.<\/p>\n

The donor was Michael Usry Sr., a contractor living near Jackson, Mississippi.<\/p>\n

Ten years earlier, thinking he was helping further the Mormon Church\u2019s deep interest in genetic research, Usry donated his DNA to a nonprofit scientific organization conducting a hereditary study.<\/p>\n

The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation was launched by billionaire Utah businessman James LeVoy Sorenson with the backing of the church. The foundation\u2019s goal was finding a \u201cgenetic blueprint\u201d for humans, and it amassed more than 100,000 samples when Ancestry acquired the database in 2007.<\/p>\n

Usry was not the right age for the 20-something suspect investigators were seeking. But his son was the approximate age and had connections to the Idaho Falls area.<\/p>\n

Police showed up at Michael Usry Jr.\u2019s doorstep in New Orleans in December 2014, armed with a warrant for his DNA.<\/p>\n

The younger Usry, a filmmaker, was interrogated for six hours and finally gave blood for a DNA sample. For the next month, he remained under suspicion until his DNA was determined not to match the samples taken from the crime scene.<\/p>\n

Now Usry Jr. says he is making a documentary about his experience. \u201cIt was disconcerting,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a very weird situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Idaho Falls Police Department spokeswoman Joelyn Hansen said the investigator who obtained the warrant has retired and no one else in the department \u201cfelt comfortable\u201d discussing the warrant.<\/p>\n

After media reports about the Usrys\u2019 experience, Ancestry and 23andme each said they turn over customer genetic data only under court order. Both companies announced publication of \u201ctransparency\u201d reports that disclose the number of warrants and subpoenas from law agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrivacy is our primary concern,\u201d said 23andme privacy officer Kate Black, who said the company has never turned over genetic information despite receiving four court orders. But Black said 23andme has so far convinced investigators that the company\u2019s data won\u2019t help with their cases \u2014 and the agencies have withdrawn their demands.<\/p>\n

Ancestry says the only request it received was for Usry\u2019s information. The company has since removed the Sorenson database from public view.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does bother me that Sorenson sold that information after they told me it wouldn\u2019t be shared,\u201d the elder Usry said. \u201cIt does bother me that my DNA was used in this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Investigators are broadening their DNA searches beyond government databases and demanding genetic information from companies that do ancestry research<\/a> for their customers. Two major companies that research family lineage for fees around $200 say that over the last two years, they have received law enforcement demands for genetic information stored in their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13185"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}