"Solved! Unmasking the Golden State Killer"

Barbara Rae-Venter, J.D., Ph.D

Our speaker will share how she used Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) in assisting the FBI and the Sacramento DA’s office to identify Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer. IGG is the use of crime scene DNA to identify a suspect by building family trees of people who share DNA with the suspect. The Golden State Killer was responsible for over 100 home invasions, 50 rapes and 13 murders in California between 1974 and 1986. 

Barbara Rae-Venter is the President and a Co-Founder of Firebird Forensics Group that focuses on assisting law enforcement with identifying suspects in violent crimes and identifying unidentified human remains. She is a retired intellectual property attorney who specialized in the patenting of biotechnology inventions. Barbara identified the mother of Lisa Jensen, abducted in infancy and then abandoned by her abductor as a 5 year old. This was the first use of IGG in a criminal case, and led to the NH State Police solving the murder of the Allenstown Four. She and her team have solved about 75 cases.

Venter earned a J.D. from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of California at San Diego. She was recognized by the journal Nature as one of “10 people Who Mattered In Science In 2018,” and was one of Time100’s Most Influential People of 2019. Her book, I Know Who You Are, about the early cases that she assisted in solving, was published by Penguin Ransom House in 2023.