I watch a lot of true crime shows and cases that went cold back in the 80s are now getting solved because of websites like Ancestry. Investigators open up cases that went cold and they take the DNA that was found back then and find matches of ancestors of the suspect.
Usually they reopen a case when they see someone being a copycat of the crimes from the past, such as they leave the same item or something similar that matches the case before. Unfortunately when it comes to cases that are over 50 years old, most likely the suspect from before would not be alive anymore.
Now I can understand how this could be an invasion of some people’s privacy by looking into their DNA history. But if it were to save even one more life, then I would break that privacy because saving someone’s life is much more important than invading privacy.
Also it could stop other people in that person’s family from continuing their legacy or something then that potentially saves other lives as well. Overall I think that it’s the right of the investigators and law enforcement to do whatever they can to get the suspects to share DNA even if it’s taking a cup or piece of gum to obtain the DNA from that person.
I think that law enforcement should open up all cold cases because there are so many families out there that have lost loved ones and have no idea who did the crime. I also think that it should’t only be murder that they investigate with DNA, they can also use it for other crimes like theft, arson, assault(all kinds), or any other crimes that potentially have DNA on the scene.
If 20 years ago their DNA wasn’t in the system, today could be the day you find the person who did the crime because their 2nd cousin or something sent in their DNA to an ancestry website. We should do whatever we can to solve crimes and DNA is going to always improve so I hope all cold cases get solved!
