The Cobb County Rapist

A series of three unsolved rapes occurred in Cobb County, Georgia, in 1999. The police were able to acquire DNA from the crimes but there was no match in the criminal database to narrow down the field to a suspect. Law enforcement turned to Parabon Nanolabs, a business that specializes in DNA phenotyping, which can help law enforcement solve crimes. Phenotyping is the ability to forecast the appearance of anything based on genetic markers, thus the corporation can essentially study DNA and then predict how the suspect looks. It cannot provide a perfect image of the individual, but it can provide information such as hair color, eye color, and skin color. When DNA ancestry data is added, you have a powerful tool for catching serial murders.

With the assistance of Parabon, law enforcement was able to locate the killer's distant ancestor on the website GEDMatch. This helped them to zero in on a suspect in the rape cases. Police discovered a suspect with a criminal history of burglary and being a peeping tom. They compared DNA samples from the suspect and determined that he was, in fact, the rapist. However, shortly after submitting the sample to legal enforcement, the guy committed suicide, effectively ending the case.

Date: 1999