This year detectives received a lead that, with the help of the FBI, allowed them to create a genealogical profile that lead them to identify Anderson as a person of interest. May 31, 2019 SANTA ANA (CBSLA) – Thanks to genealogical DNA evidence, a Marine veteran was arrested in New Orleans last week on murder charges in the 43-year-old cold case ki...

The genealogy database that helped authorities track down the alleged Golden State Killer and dozens of other suspects has changed a key policy over privacy concerns, a move that could hamper future criminal investigations. June 11, 2019 The genealogy database that helped authorities track down the alleged Golden State Killer and dozens of other su...

A legal settlement filed Wednesday extends restrictions for three more years on when Los Angeles Police officers or other City workers may remove property that belongs to people experiencing homelessness from streets and sidewalks. May 29, 2019https://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/Los-Angeles-Skid-Row-Map-Expands-Homeless-510578381.html As p...

The break came when Santa Clara investigators submitted DNA from the Perlov crime scene to the genealogy website GEDMatch. Enter Article DATE HERE A second Stanford University decades-old cold case has been linked to a man who was arrested six months ago through DNA. Leslie Perlov, a Stanford grad, and Janet Taylor, the daughter of a Stanford ...

The Atwater evidence locker was maintained "sub par at best" without any consistency, proper oversight and included a space at a mini-storage without an alarm, according to a state Department of Justice report. May 10, 2019 The Atwater evidence locker until recently was maintained "sub-par at best" without any consistency, proper oversight and incl...

Authorities described the property as a hoarder's paradise, with guns strewn throughout several of the home's rooms. It took about 30 law enforcement personnel more than 12 hours to remove all the weapons, which included rifles, shotguns, assault weapons and pistols, authorities said. May 10, 2019 A 57-year-old man identified in court records as th...

The oldest evidence Nicks keeps is from a murder case back in the 1970s. May 3, 2019 As you enter the San Diego Superior Court's evidence storage vaults, the sound that greets you is rushing water. Like a spa, or a relaxing fountain. Except this water runs through a pipe overhead labeled sanitary waste. "It's funny until you have to work under it a...

Crediting DNA evidence for the break in the case, police said Lenard Chester, 58, was booked into Ventura County jail Thursday on suspicion of raping and murdering Leah Sarah Bullis, in Oxnard. May 2, 2019 A suspect in an unsolved murder case was arrested nearly four decades after the rape and slaying of an 81-year-old woman, Oxnard police said Thu...

In 2018, authorities, with assistance from the California Department of Justice's familial DNA search team, conducted a familial DNA search to find matches to the evidence. April 18, 2019 After more than 40 years, a suspect in a pair of Atascadero murders has been identified thanks to DNA evidence, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office announ...

Police in Northern California say they used DNA evidence to arrest a suspect in the 2013 killing of a 94-year-old woman April 11, 2019 UBA CITY, Calif. (AP) - Police in Northern California say they used DNA evidence to arrest a suspect in the 2013 killing of a 94-year-old woman who was brutally murdered in her home. The Sacramento Bee reports that ...

In October of last year, the San Diego Police Cold Case Unit and the San Diego County District Attorney's Office Cold Case Unit asked the FBI's Investigative Genealogy Team for assistance with the case. March 21, 2019 SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – A crime scene DNA match has, at long last, allowed homicide detectives to determine who stabbed a La Jolla mother...

Police have identified a suspect who they believe brutally killed Thomas and Alice Green in their East Bay home almost 40 years ago. March 12, 2019 LIVERMORE, CA — Investigators in Livermore are crediting DNA technology and old-fashioned police work with solving a 1981 double homicide. Thomas and Alice Green were found dead in a bedroom of their Li...

Enter Headline here March 6, 2019 Home » Crime » This Article DA's Rape-Kit Testing Effort Yields Zero Arrests So Far; Half of $1 Million Spent Posted by Ken Stone on In April 2018, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced a $1 million program to test 1,000 backlogged rape kits — aiming to identify DNA and put assailants away. Th...

Linda disappeared July 6, 1973. She was seen walking home from summer school, and her body was found the next day. Enter Article DATE HERE COLORADO SPRINGS — A Colorado man arrested after DNA tied him to the 1973 killing of an 11-year-old California girl has yet to decide if he will fight extradition.. The Colorado Springs Gazette reports 72-y...

Hired a felon as an officer and supplied a gun to a code enforcement officer who failed a psychological exam. Enter Article DATE HERE The termination letter for former Atwater Police Chief Samuel Joseph alleges he did not properly secure the department's evidence locker, routinely bullied or threatened subordinates, hired a felon as an officer...

Enter Headline here February 6, 2019 Southern California cold case investigators announced this week a breakthrough in identifying a 1987 stabbing victim whose hands had been hacked off by her killer. The investigators identified the Jane Doe homicide victim as Tracey Hobson after 31 years using "forensic genealogy techniques," according to the Ora...

The DNA technology company used family trees and narrowed in on Guerrero as a suspect. January 24, 2019 In December 1990, Upton was a manager at the Safeway in Fremont's Irvington neighborhood. Co-workers said he was dependable and was always prompt. "One day, he didn't show up," Blas said. "They got a little bit concerned. Next day he didn't show ...

In August 2018, investigators, partnering with the FBI's Investigative Genealogy Team, submitted DNA f January 12, 2019 Investigators have arrested a man on suspicion of raping two victims — a 9-year-old girl walking home from the store and a woman jogger, both 1990s cold cases from Orange County — after genealogical data led them to the suspect's ...

Ted Emery was fatally shot in a parking lot after shopping for groceries in 1995. December 1, 2018 REDONDO BEACH (CBSLA) — Two retired Redondo Beach police officers have cracked a cold case more than 20 years after a man was shot and killed during a grocery run in the South Bay city. Ted Emery was fatally shot in a parking lot after shopping for gr...

Arthur Getreu, 74, was arrested in Hayward on Nov. 20 after Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies found a match on his DNA through an online genealogy database November 26, 2018 Arthur Getreu, 74, was arrested in Hayward on Nov. 20 after Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies found a match on his DNA through an online genealogy database. He has been...

Authorities said Mason died in a vehicle accident in 2015, a year before he was identified as the homicide suspect. November 20, 2018 TRACY — The Tracy Police Department has closed an almost decade-old homicide cold case, but said the suspect is dead. Police announced this week that 72-year-old James Mason is the lone suspect in the killing of his ...

Bermudez didn't book it into the sheriff's property room and tried to pocket the money. November 28, 2018 BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - A sentence was handed down for Edward Bermudez, a former Kern County Sheriff's deputy accused of stealing from the people he arrested. Bermudez was sentenced to three years probation. The sheriff's office says Bermudez was...

O'Sullivan estimates that some items date to the 1950s or '60s. He's recently been asked to find items from the 1970s that relate to the Golden State Killer case. October 12, 2018 A surfboard propped up in a corner of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office property room nearly touches the ceiling. It's wedged in among shelves full of objects as varied...

In less than a minute, the device, which is about the size of a Nintendo Game Boy, identified the white powder, flashing the word "methamphetamine" on its small screen. October 7, 2018 Wearing gloves and working under a hood that vents fumes from the evidence room, La Mesa police Sgt. Katy Lynch pushed a button on the scanner in her hand and shined...

​The bill requires that the backlog be tallied and reported by July 1, 2019.​ September 30, 2018 SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown signed one bill and rejected another Sunday that sexual assault survivors have long sought in hopes of forcing California law enforcement agencies to account for backlogged rape kits. Brown signed AB3118 by Assemblyman Davi...

According to grand jury transcripts unsealed Friday, the former deputies took 34 lbs. of processed marijuana, worth about $34,000 from a KCSO evidence room. September 29, 2019 BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Investigators said Logan August and Derrick Penney stole marijuana from KCSO evidence September 18, 2014 -- the same day they confiscated it during a ma...

On at least one occasion, Penney and his partner Logan August used their keys to raid a narcotics evidence locker, before selling it, according to court documents. September 12, 2018 STAR — Ada County sheriff's deputies arrested former Bakersfield Deputy Derrick Penney in Idaho after a Kern County Grand Jury handed down more than a dozen felony ind...

The doctor said he took it upon himself to personally take a swab sample from inside her vagina and put it on a slide for future use, Enter Article DATE HERE OAKLAND — It's been nearly 40 years since Betty Elias was found dead in her room on San Pablo Avenue. Wednesday her alleged killer was held to answer for her murder. Dennis Ray Eagle, 57,...

Police departments for decades disagreed over whether attacks spanning the state over more than a decade were committed by a single man. August 13, 2018 Claude Snelling woke in the night 42 years ago to find a man in his Visalia backyard trying to abduct his 16-year-old daughter. He tried to intervene and was fatally shot. Tulare County prosecutors...

An attorney representing suspended Atwater Police Chief Samuel Joseph said the state probe into evidence missing from the Police Department is nothing more than a scheme "cooked up" to smear his client. August 15, 2018 An attorney representing suspended Atwater Police Chief Samuel Joseph said the state probe into evidence missing from the Police De...

Merced County District Attorney's Office to investigate inconsistencies discovered when the city requested an evidence room audit by the Sheriff's Office in January, the city said. August 10, 2018 ATWATER, California - The evidence room at the Atwater Police Department was closed by the interim chief pending an audit to be conducted by the Californ...

Melted-down firearms confiscated in LA County to become symbols of peace July 19, 2018 Thousands of illegal and confiscated firearms collected from throughout Los Angeles County were destroyed Thursday, July 19, at the annual "Gun Melt" at Gerdau Steel Mill in Rancho Cucamonga. The steel mill and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department teamed u...

Investigators collected DNA at the scene and entered it into the Combined DNA Index System, a national database July 11, 2018 LUMBERTON — A match in the national fingerprint database led to the arrest Wednesday of a St. Pauls man in a California cold case murder and rape that happened 31 years ago, according to a release from the Robeson County Dis...

Legal pot shops are losing customers who can get products more cheaply at illegal outlets that don't charge or pay taxes Enter Article DATE HERE LOS ANGELES (AP) — A slight marijuana smell wafted out as a steady stream of customers walked into a warehouse, its doors and windows covered by bars. Suddenly, police swooped in. "Sheriff's departmen...

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors renewed a $10,000 reward Tuesday in hopes of tracking down 31 Beretta and Glock pistols, believed to be police service weapons and stolen from a vault in Compton's old City Hall. Enter Article DATE HERE LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors renewed a $10,000 reward Tuesday in hopes of...

Only 4.2 percent of 10,000 pieces of evidence feared missing from the evidence locker of the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office turned out to be lost, June 26, 2018 Only 4.2 percent of 10,000 pieces of evidence feared missing from the evidence locker of the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office turned out to be lost, a new grand jury report says. Su...

There's been a lot of increases in technology for DNA,​ June 29, 2018 SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Officials say a suspect in a cold case from four decades ago at Stanford University appears to have killed himself as deputies were approaching to serve a search warrant Wednesday morning. Deputies from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office were trying...

Allegations that the sheriff's evidence locker had gone to hell and thousands of pieces of evidence were missing led to a grand jury investigation — again, still ongoing. June 5, 2018 Sheriff's Office politics often confound me. Politics involving allegations of misconduct, that is. Unless the press can prove allegations against a sheriff, the accu...

Making its way through Congress is a federal bill worked on by Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten that would allow grant funding for the prosecution of violent cold cases with DNA evidence. Enter Article DATE HERE Making its way through Congress is a federal bill worked on by Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten that would al...

Enter Headline here Enter Article DATE HERE Fentanyl, a potent opioid already responsible for thousands of deaths nationwide, is increasingly showing up in drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine in California, officials say. The white powder, a lethal substance 50 times stronger than heroin, is sometimes mixed into other opioids to produce a s...

Enter Headline here May 17, 2018 Tens of thousands of rape kits are sitting on shelves in police and sheriff's department evidence rooms nationwide. And no one has tested them to see what crimes they could help solve. A bill by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) would help determine how many of those unanalyzed exam kits exist in California, ...

Officials in Los Angeles say DNA and fingerprint evidence collected at the scene of a brutal 1977 rape and murder of a woman in front of her two young sons has led to an arrest in the case. May 4, 2018 LOS ANGELES — Officials in Los Angeles say DNA and fingerprint evidence collected at the scene of a brutal 1977 rape and murder of a woman in front ...

The arrest of the alleged Golden State Killer and a case currently before the court both raise questions about Fourth Amendment rights in the digital age. Enter Article DATE HERE Several years ago, the Supreme Court considered the case of Alonzo Jay King Jr. Arrested in an assault in Maryland, he ended up being charged and convicted in an unso...

The killing remained unsolved for roughly four decades, but a fingerprint found at the scene and additional DNA evidence helped Los Angeles police last week capture the man they believe is responsible. Enter Article DATE HERE When a man entered Leona Davis' South Los Angeles home in 1977, he didn't seem to care that two children were staring a...

There is a bill in the Senate that would require all law enforcement to test rape kits. April 30, 2018 There's a new effort in the state to fix the backlog of untested rape kits. This is coming just days after the suspected Golden State Killer was arrested. According to Joyful Heart Foundation, there are an estimated 13,000 kits currently untested ...

Enter Headline here Enter Article DATE HERE SACRAMENTO, California (AP) — More than three decades after his trail went cold, one of California's most prolific serial killers and rapists was caught by using online genealogical sites to find a DNA match, prosecutors said Thursday. Investigators compared the DNA collected from a crime scene of th...

The Golden State Killer, who was arrested on suspicion of committing four killings in Sacramento and Ventura counties, is believed to be responsible for at least 12 murders, 45 rapes and 120 home burglaries throughout California. April 24, 2018 The suspect believed to be the notorious Golden State Killer — who was wanted in a dozen murders and near...

32 agents were hired as part of an effort to clear the backlog that began in 2013, when the number of people who had been ordered to give up their guns but were never visited by an agent stood at 20,000. April 20, 2018 The California Department of Justice believes it will take at least four years to finish the job of seizing guns from more than 10,...

Komrosky, 31, was arrested after allegedly stealing a pound of methamphetamine valued at $10,000 and 13 cell phones from the Metro Area Task Force. April 12, 2018 A judge has set bond at $2,500 cash for a Burleigh County sheriff's deputy charged with theft and drug crimes while on the job. Kerry Komrosky, 31, was arrested Tuesday after allegedly st...

Arao is accused of obtaining the guns by transferring "off-roster" inventory from Ronin Tactical Group to himself, while Fernandez allegedly sold dozens of "off-roster" firearms through private-party transfers. "Off-roster" guns are those that can be legally bought by law enforcement officers but are not available to the general public. March 26, 2...