Trigger warning: mentions of homicide
In November of 1985, the leaves had long since fallen off the trees that dot the rolling hills of south-central New Hampshire. As autumn turned into winter, temperatures dropped, ushering in deer hunting season. On November 10th, a man hunting on the outskirts in Bear Brook State Park near Allenstown found a 55-gallon steel drum concealed under dry brush. Inside, the hunter discovered the bodies of a young woman and girl, determined to be mother and daughter. This gruesome finding would haunt the tight-knit community of Allenstown as the case remained shrouded in mystery for decades. Despite searching through missing persons databases and conducting thousands of interviews, detectives were never able to determine the identities of the woman and young girl found in Bear Brook State Park.
In May of 2000, another barrel was found a few paces away from the spot where the first drum was discovered fifteen years before. This barrel contained two more bodies, those of a young girl and a toddler who was related to the first two victims. These four individuals would remain nameless until June 2019, when a new technique allowed investigators to determine the identities of the four that came to be known as the Bear Brook murder victims.
Many people submit their DNA to companies like 23andMe or Ancestry to find long lost relatives, figure out where their ancestors are from, or to discover what diseases they may be predisposed to. But this technology has another use. Genetic genealogy, or the use of DNA to determine biological relationships between individuals, was used to solve the Bear Brook case after almost four decades of fruitless investigation.
Previous attempts to link the Bear Brook victims’ DNA to other records hadn’t been rewarding; after almost forty years, most usable DNA was severely degraded. But new techniques allowed genetic genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter to retrieve and analyze DNA from strands of hair. Rae-Venter was then able to search through existing public DNA databases for relatives of the victims, tracing familial lines and eventually determining the victim’s identities.
Many called it the biggest breakthrough forensic investigation had seen in decades. The technology that gave the Bear Brook victims their names was quickly applied and investigators across the country began cracking open cold cases to see if genetic genealogy could solve more crimes.
In 2018, Bay Area investigator Paul Holes used similar techniques to create a full DNA profile of the notorious Golden State Killer, who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s. Holes uploaded the profile to a website called GEDmatch, a service that allows individuals to publicly post their DNA profile after getting results from a service like 23andMe or Ancestry. The organization was created in the hopes of helping law enforcement gain access to some of the DNA profiles that exist online so they could link crime scene DNA to a person or familial line. Holes soon found a user who partially matched the DNA of the Golden State Killer, and through interviews and further testing, he was able to determine the killer’s identity.
The benefits of genetic genealogy and online DNA profiles are undeniable- the technology has solved an ongoing list of cold cases as well as developing ones. It gave a mother and her daughters their names. Without it, Marlyse Honeychurch, Marie Vaughn and Sarah McWaters may have never been identified as the Bear Brook murder victims.* Genetic genealogy brought the Golden State Killer, a man with hundreds of victims, to justice, and departments across the country are employing it to solve a wide range of cases.
But genetic genealogy’s novelty is also its downfall. There is very little existing legislation surrounding DNA and personal privacy, making grey areas vast. Some people worry that health insurance companies may be able to gain access to information about possible diseases or harmful genes you may carry and subsequently raise insurance rates for certain people. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), passed in 2008, doesn’t ensure the privacy of all Americans when it comes to this phenomenon. GINA does not protect individuals who get their health insurance from the government through agencies like the Veterans Health Administration or the Indian Health Service. If private insurance companies gain access to information regarding an individual’s genetic predispositions, rates could be raised or certain people could be blatantly denied insurance.
Knowing this, many people choose not to submit their DNA to companies like 23andMe. But it isn’t that simple. If any of your relatives, your father, grandmother, sister, or even a long-lost cousin, submit DNA to a testing site, part of your genetic profile also exists in this online realm. So has our right to privacy already been stripped from us in a way we can’t control? Will we be denied insurance or a job based on a distant cousin’s desire to find out where their ancestors lived? Could a relative’s genetic profile be used against us in the future?
Additionally, the relative newness of DNA testing and genetic genealogy mean there are uses for our genetic profile we likely don’t understand yet. In coming years, the scientific world could see more breakthroughs in the realm, meaning existing DNA profiles are subject to the unknown.
Your DNA profile is the most complete set of information about you as an individual. It can tell you who your long-lost family is and where your ancestors were from. Uploading your genetic profile to a website like GEDmatch could help solve a cold case or bring a murderer to justice. But it also breaks the semi-permeable privacy barrier companies like 23andMe and Ancestry promise their customers. Does the good outweigh the limitless sea of unknown? It’s your spit - you decide.
*The third child victim in the Bear Brook case was determined not to be related to Honeychurch and her daughters and therefore has not yet been identified.
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