Found this article in the Seattle Times dated 18th of May 2018
Talbott was identified through genetic genealogy, the same technique that led to the arrest last month of Joseph James DeAngelo, the alleged serial rapist and killer known as the Golden State Killer in California.
After DeAngelo’s arrest, some scientists and ethicists expressed concerns about law enforcement identifying suspects through the DNA of relatives, who used sites such as Ancestry.com or 23andMe to generate their own DNA profiles and then uploaded them to GEDmatch, a public genetic-genealogy website,
The New York Times reported.
In April,
investigators from Snohomish and Skagit counties announced they had sent DNA from Van Cuylenborg’s killer to Parabon NanoLabs, which provided scientific approximations of what the killer might look like based on traits embedded in his genetic code.
From there, a digital file containing DNA genotype data derived from the crime scene was uploaded to GEDmatch, and promising matches were found for two of Talbott’s relatives, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Parabon’s CEO, Steve Armentrout, said Friday his lab
began offering genetic genealogy two weeks ago. He said the privacy concerns that have been raised are based on misconceptions and noted Talbott’s DNA profile was never made public on GEDmatch, never appeared in any queries, and complied with the site’s use