Court records show DNA from a tissue left in a trash can led authorities to arrest a former California police officer suspected of being the Golden State Killer.
The documents released Friday about the arrest of 72-year-old Joseph DeAngelo detail the case that Sacramento County sheriff’s investigators pieced together to obtain an arrest warrant in April.
DeAngelo is suspected of committing at least a dozen killings and roughly 50 rapes in the 1970s and 80s.
Investigators linked DeAngelo to the killings by plugging DNA collected from a semen sample at one of the crime scenes into a genealogical website.
Authorities say they then collected trash from a can left outside DeAngelo’s house to make the final DNA match.
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