Police began to scan private DNA databases in search of suspects

In the past two years, law enforcement agencies have begun to apply with requests to commercial companies that carry out genetic analysis of citizens' biomaterial. In particular, since 2014, the largest companies in this field, Ancestry.com and 23andMe, received several court requests for the issuance of private genetic information, which led to the prosecution of a young man who was not at all involved in the crime and did not even give in to genetic material. This was done by his father .

The picture shows Michael Asri Sr. with a photo of his 19-year-old son Michael Asri Jr. He became the prime suspect in the murder case, because the father’s DNA from a non-profit database partially matched the DNA on the victim’s body.

Ancestry.com and 23andMe have received only five requests for the issuance of DNA for six people over the past two years, writes AP. The company Ancestry.com has issued the DNA of one person in connection with the investigation into the murder of an 18-year-old girl in Idaho Falls, pieces. Idaho. 23andMe received four court orders, but secured their cancellation.
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Although law enforcement requests are rare, lawyers for protecting confidential information are cause for concern. People donate DNA to conduct medical tests, compile a genealogical tree, or for other purely personal purposes, and police investigators use the biomaterial for other purposes. And even several well-known incidents threaten to become a common practice. Some experts believe that the number of requests to private DNA databases will increase: information about the genomes of hundreds of thousands of people is stored in such databases. The authorities also have their own DNA databases with a biomaterial of millions of convicted criminals.

Investigators routinely compare DNA at a crime scene with samples from their bases. They look at 13 separate sites in the DNA sample and look for exact matches for each site.

Representatives of Ancestry.com and 23andMe say that their bases are useless for forensic scientists because they analyze other DNA fragments. However, this does not stop the investigators.

In the summer of 2014, Idaho Falls police received a court order for the removal of genetic information from Ancestry.com in a murder case in 1996. In 1998, a certain Christopher Tapp received a sentence in this case, but he appealed on the grounds that his DNA did not match the DNA on the victim's body. The police are still working on the case under pressure from the relatives of the victim and the public.

Police sent a DNA sample to Ancestry.com for verification. She sent the results in response, without telling the names of people in the database. However, according to these results, the police were able to find similar, although not the same DNA. This indicated that the alleged killer could be a close relative of the donor.

The donor was Michael Usri Sr., who lives near the city of Jackson, pc. Mississippi. Ten years ago, the Mormon Church began deep genetic research and asked parishioners to submit a biomaterial to the non-profit scientific organization Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation. Mormons sought to compile the genetic tree of humanity and collected more than 100,000 DNA samples when Ancestry.com bought their base in 2007.

Usri Sr. did not fit the description of a 20-30-year-old criminal, but his son was a great fit, and he also had connections in Idaho Falls.

The police came to the house of Michael Usri Jr. in December 2014, with a warrant for the collection of his biomaterial. The young filmmaker was interrogated for six hours, after which he agreed to donate DNA. For the next month, he was monitored by the police and was the main suspect in the case, until the experts confirmed the final answer: his DNA does not match the sample from the victim’s body.

Now in the Idaho Falls Police Department, no one “feels comfortable” to discuss a court order issued, and the investigator on the case has resigned.

The story of Michael Asri is an example of the incorrectness of the principle “I have nothing to hide”. Many people say so, providing private information to law enforcement agencies, agreeing to wiretapping personal conversations, scanning emails, etc. Father also had nothing to hide when he sent his DNA sample for scientific research. Who knew that the base with his DNA would be sold to a commercial company, and after seven years the police would declare to his son.

In some countries of the world, DNA samples from all newborns (for example, in Sweden - since 1975) are taken exclusively for medical and scientific purposes. It is very important to limit the access of law enforcement agencies to such information.