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Who is Barbara Rae-Venter?
Barbara Rae-Venter is a retired patent attorney with a Ph.D. in biology who, as a genetic genealogist, built the family trees that pointed investigators to Joseph DeAngelo, arrested as the Golden State Killer on April 24, 2018. Investigator Paul Holes first contacted her in 2017. She was named to the 2019 TIME 100 and wrote the 2023 book I Know Who You Are.
Key dates
- 2017 — Contra Costa County DA investigator Paul Holes approached Rae-Venter for help on the case. KTVU FOX 2
- 2018-04-24 — Joseph DeAngelo was arrested after the genealogy work narrowed the search to him. ABC7 News (KGO)
- 2018-09-02 — Rae-Venter spoke publicly about her role, saying she had since been approached about more than 50 other cases. KTVU FOX 2
- 2019 — Rae-Venter was named to TIME's list of the 100 most influential people. Penguin Random House (Ballantine Books)
- 2023-02-07 — Ballantine Books published her book I Know Who You Are, about the Golden State Killer case and investigative genetic genealogy. Penguin Random House (Ballantine Books)
Last reviewed 2026-10-18. Statements are attributed to the linked sources; inclusion on this page does not imply wrongdoing.
Strongest Evidence
GEDmatch
Rae-Venter uploaded crime scene DNA to GEDmatch and built family trees from partial matches.
Joseph James DeAngelo
Rae-Venter's forensic genealogy work identified DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer through family tree analysis.
Paul Holes
Holes worked with Rae-Venter on the forensic genealogy investigation that identified DeAngelo.
Connections (3)
Rae-Venter uploaded crime scene DNA to GEDmatch and built family trees from partial matches.
Rae-Venter's forensic genealogy work identified DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer through family tree analysis.
Holes worked with Rae-Venter on the forensic genealogy investigation that identified DeAngelo.
Mutual Connections
Entities that are connected to Barbara Rae-Venter and also to each other.
Frequently asked questions
Who identified the Golden State Killer using DNA?+
Genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter, working with Contra Costa County DA investigator Paul Holes and other investigators, built family trees from the crime-scene DNA's distant-relative matches and narrowed the search to DeAngelo. Investigators then confirmed the match using DNA DeAngelo discarded. KTVU FOX 2
What DNA databases were used to find the Golden State Killer?+
Holes uploaded a crime-scene DNA profile to the public genealogy site GEDmatch, which returned many distant genetic cousins. CBS News reports the profile was also run through FamilyTreeDNA. CBS News (48 Hours)
Did Parabon NanoLabs or CeCe Moore solve the Golden State Killer case?+
No. The genealogy work was done by Barbara Rae-Venter with Paul Holes and other investigators. MIT Technology Review reported that CeCe Moore was not involved, and Parabon launched its own genetic genealogy unit about two weeks after the arrest was announced. MIT Technology Review
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