California police crack 45-year-old murder case using genealogy database

SAN FRANCISCO – Northern California authorities say they have cracked a 45-year-old murder case using the same publicly available DNA database investigators accessed to arrest alleged serial killer Joseph DeAngelo.

The Santa Clara County sheriff’s department said Wednesday that officers arrested 74-year-old John Arthur Getreu on suspicion of killing 21-year-old Leslie Perlov in 1973. Perlov’s body was under an oak tree near Stanford University and her panty hose were stuffed in her mouth. She had been strangled and the case went unsolved for decades.

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Investigators taking another look at the case in July found an unknown man’s DNA among the evidence. They sent the DNA sample to the Virginia-based DNA technology company Parabon NanoLab.

WATCH: DNA from genealogy website led to Golden State Killer suspect

1:06 DNA from genealogy website led to Golden State Killer suspect

The company’s results led investigators to Getreu, who was arrested at his Hayward, California, home on Tuesday.