This is a long video, but it’s absolutely fascinating and amazing—how they caught the Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo.
Just to be clear: I’m thrilled he was caught! But it’s crazy that the same technology used to find this evil man was also used to find me, a private, law-abiding citizen.
What’s even wilder is that DeAngelo actually had more privacy rights than me on Ancestry.com and 23andme. The data from those sites can’t be used for crime fighting–he was found through a separate, much smaller site that is similar to the big two, but users have to explicitly opt-in to allow their data to be used for law enforcement. His capture was delayed by a couple of years because he had privacy rights that I didn’t.
2 replies on “Golden State”
The anguish that comes from being conceived from absent, uninterested parents dwarves the inconvenience of facing the consequences of your poorly thought out actions. Man up.
Thanks for your comment. If you’re referring to the Biohacked podcast, where “Karen” contacted me and then proceeded to act like a stalker, she does in fact have two devoted, and quite wealthy parents, neither of whom is me. In addition, she’s not a child…she is 25.
Please don’t reduce me to a one-dimensional monster. Every situation is unique. Of course I understand that developing children need parenting.
Some kids only have one parent, but Karen (who incidentally has been given enough money by her parents that she never has to work) is so entitled she was looking for a third parent who she thought she could dominate and who would meekly submit to her desire for information and relationships she had no right to.
I would expect most donor conceived children act respectfully when they attempt to contact their anonymous sperm donors. A good example was Amber in the Biohacked podcast. She was so thoughtful and behaved so appropriately, and her donor responded well to that, and I would have too.
Karen was the polar opposite of Amber, so I reacted differently. My point is, before you judge someone, it helps to take time to understand the nuance of what it is you’re judging.