SAN JOSE, Calif. _ "How sure are you?" the FBI agent asked Barbara Rae-Venter.
"As long as we have all the descendants in the family tree, then I'm sure," the retired intellectual property attorney and genealogist told him.
About a week later, on April 25, Joseph DeAngelo was arrested; he has since been charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping. Investigators say the 72-year-old Citrus Heights man, a former police officer, is the Golden State Killer, the notorious serial murderer and rapist responsible for a terrifying crime spree up and down the state during the 1970s and '80s.
A key role in connecting DeAngelo to the crimes was played by Rae-Venter, who until recently had kept quiet about her work to help solve the infamous cold case. Hand-picked by Paul Holes _ the retired Contra Costa District Attorney inspector who has been credited with using genealogy to catch DeAngelo _ the 70-year-old Northern California resident offered critical DNA expertise to the team of investigators leading the manhunt.
"Her expertise proved to be invaluable," Holes said in a phone interview. "And when she was doing it, she was volunteering her time, and it just really speaks to her as a person."
DeAngelo, who remains in custody in Sacramento County jail, has yet to enter a plea. Authorities believe he is responsible for nine rapes in Contra Costa County, and in August he was charged in four of those cases _ as kidnapping during a robbery _ to get around the statute of limitations on sexual assaults. The attacks took place in Concord, San Ramon and Danville.
For Rae-Venter _ who volunteers as a "search angel" for DNAadoption.com, a website that teaches adoptees to use DNA to find their birth parents _ the months since DeAngelo's arrest have been a whirlwind. She previously had used her skills mostly to find missing birth parents and researching her own family's Kiwi roots, not serial killers.
But all that began to change in March 2015 when Rae-Venter opened an email from a San Bernardino County detective hoping to track down the parents of an abducted child. She had no idea her involvement would eventually help solve a different, decades-old serial murder case.
