Professionals & Academics
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I Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever
"A true-crime masterpiece written by a cold-case-cracking master. Barbara Rae-Venter's investigative DNA work has revolutionized the way law enforcement hunts serial killers."-John Douglas, New York Times bestselling co-author of Mindhunter
"Barbara Rae-Venter isn't just the genealogy expert who helped capture the Golden State Killer-she's an unsung hero who has given murdered women and children their faces and names back, the recognizing that their lives mattered."-Maureen Callahan, New York Times bestselling author of American Predator
For twelve years the Golden State Killer terrorized California, stalking victims and killing without remorse. Then he simply disappeared, for the next forty-four years, until an amateur DNA sleuth opened her laptop. In I Know Who You Are, Barbara Rae-Venter reveals how she went from researching her family history as a retiree to hunting for a notorious serial killer-and how she became the nation's leading authority on investigative genetic genealogy, the most dazzling new crime-fighting weapon to appear in decades.
Rae-Venter leads readers on a vivid journey through the many cases she tackled, often starting with little more than a DNA sample. From the first criminal case she ever solved-uncovering the long-lost identity of a child abductee-to the heartbreaking story of the Billboard Boy, whose skeletal remains were discovered along a highway, to the search for the Golden State Killer, Rae-Venter shares haunting, often thrilling accounts of how she helped solve some of America's most chilling cold cases in the span of just three years.
For each investigation, Rae-Venter brings readers inside her unique "grasshopper mind" as she analyzes DNA data and pores through obituaries, marriage records, and old newspaper articles. Readers join in on urgent calls with sheriffs, FBI agents, and district attorneys as she details the struggle to obtain usable crime scene DNA samples, until, finally, a critical piece of the puzzle tumbles into place.
I Know Who You Are captures both the exhilaration of the moment of discovery and the sheer depth of emotion that lingers around cold cases, informing Rae-Venter's careful approach to her work. It is a story of relentless curiosity, of constant invention and reinvention, and of human beings striving to answer the most elemental questions about themselves: What defines identity? Where do we belong? And are we truly who we think we are?
"Barbara Rae-Venter isn't just the genealogy expert who helped capture the Golden State Killer-she's an unsung hero who has given murdered women and children their faces and names back, the recognizing that their lives mattered."-Maureen Callahan, New York Times bestselling author of American Predator
For twelve years the Golden State Killer terrorized California, stalking victims and killing without remorse. Then he simply disappeared, for the next forty-four years, until an amateur DNA sleuth opened her laptop. In I Know Who You Are, Barbara Rae-Venter reveals how she went from researching her family history as a retiree to hunting for a notorious serial killer-and how she became the nation's leading authority on investigative genetic genealogy, the most dazzling new crime-fighting weapon to appear in decades.
Rae-Venter leads readers on a vivid journey through the many cases she tackled, often starting with little more than a DNA sample. From the first criminal case she ever solved-uncovering the long-lost identity of a child abductee-to the heartbreaking story of the Billboard Boy, whose skeletal remains were discovered along a highway, to the search for the Golden State Killer, Rae-Venter shares haunting, often thrilling accounts of how she helped solve some of America's most chilling cold cases in the span of just three years.
For each investigation, Rae-Venter brings readers inside her unique "grasshopper mind" as she analyzes DNA data and pores through obituaries, marriage records, and old newspaper articles. Readers join in on urgent calls with sheriffs, FBI agents, and district attorneys as she details the struggle to obtain usable crime scene DNA samples, until, finally, a critical piece of the puzzle tumbles into place.
I Know Who You Are captures both the exhilaration of the moment of discovery and the sheer depth of emotion that lingers around cold cases, informing Rae-Venter's careful approach to her work. It is a story of relentless curiosity, of constant invention and reinvention, and of human beings striving to answer the most elemental questions about themselves: What defines identity? Where do we belong? And are we truly who we think we are?
Editorial Reviews
"I Know Who You Are is a true-crime masterpiece written by a cold-case-cracking master. Barbara Rae-Venter's investigative DNA work has revolutionized the way law enforcement hunts serial killers. This page-turner takes readers inside the web of lies spun by the worst criminal minds and reveals the path to solving the country's most notorious crimes. It's an epic read and a searingly important story."-John Douglas, New York Times bestselling co-author of Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
"This book is an invaluable addition to the true-crime genre."-Maureen Callahan, New York Times bestselling author of American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century
"I Know Who You Are is a propulsive true-crime thriller that takes the reader deep inside the manhunt for one of the most terrifying serial killers in American history. Barbara Rae-Venter's admirable work as a DNA sleuth provided the searing heat that melted the coldest of cold cases."-Casey Sherman, New York Times bestselling author of Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod
"I Know Who You Are offers an immersive, compelling account of a revolution in crime-fighting from the woman who pioneered it. With urgency and insight, Barbara Rae-Venter tells the unlikely story of a retired patent attorney whose obsessive, scientific mind transformed her from a genealogical hobbyist into the who helped identify one of America's most notorious serial killers. Rae-Venter's deep dive into the Golden State Killer case explores the science, history, and ethics around a technique that has led to the solving of hundreds of cold cases, a fierce debate over privacy, and a burgeoning awareness of the power of DNA technology to transform our lives by revealing the truth about the past."-Libby Copeland, author of The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We
"A remarkable account . . . Rae-Venter makes the science accessible and delves into the controversy that forensic genealogy has engende...
"This book is an invaluable addition to the true-crime genre."-Maureen Callahan, New York Times bestselling author of American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century
"I Know Who You Are is a propulsive true-crime thriller that takes the reader deep inside the manhunt for one of the most terrifying serial killers in American history. Barbara Rae-Venter's admirable work as a DNA sleuth provided the searing heat that melted the coldest of cold cases."-Casey Sherman, New York Times bestselling author of Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod
"I Know Who You Are offers an immersive, compelling account of a revolution in crime-fighting from the woman who pioneered it. With urgency and insight, Barbara Rae-Venter tells the unlikely story of a retired patent attorney whose obsessive, scientific mind transformed her from a genealogical hobbyist into the who helped identify one of America's most notorious serial killers. Rae-Venter's deep dive into the Golden State Killer case explores the science, history, and ethics around a technique that has led to the solving of hundreds of cold cases, a fierce debate over privacy, and a burgeoning awareness of the power of DNA technology to transform our lives by revealing the truth about the past."-Libby Copeland, author of The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We
"A remarkable account . . . Rae-Venter makes the science accessible and delves into the controversy that forensic genealogy has engende...
Short Excerpt Teaser
1
On March 3, 2015, a volunteer genealogist at a not-for-profit organization called DNAAdoption opened the following email:
SUBJECT: Unknown Person Search
MESSAGE: I work for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. I am working a cold case involving a kidnapping of a child when she was approx. age 2; she was recovered at approx. age 5. We do not know her real name, date of birth, etc. She is now grown in her '30s and the only known survivor of the suspect. As we back track the suspect for other victims we are attempting to tell her who she is. We have already signed up with Ancestry DNA and gotten a hit on a second cousin. I have been reading your site and would like to ask if you had any other advice given the uniqueness of our search.
The person who sent the email was Deputy Peter Headley of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Crimes Against Children Detail. The volunteer was me.
It was only a few months earlier that I had signed up as a search angel with DNAAdoption, a group that teaches adoptees how to identify biological relatives using autosomal DNA. Nearly all of the emails that I opened were from adoptees hoping to learn how to identify their birth parents, and I did my best to answer their questions. But this email was different. I was intrigued, so I immediately called Deputy Headley to learn more.
He told me the story of a girl who had been abducted and was now part of a long-cold case. Her name was Lisa Jensen, and her story-at least the part of it that was known to law enforcement-began in 1986, when Lisa was around five years old and living at the Santa Cruz Ranch RV Resort. It was an unremarkable trailer park tucked around the redwood trees of California's Santa Cruz Mountains, on the site of a bygone theme park called Santa's Village.
That year, Lisa befriended a woman named Kathy Decker, who lived in a mobile home at the park. Kathy came to know Lisa as a friendly and chatty child, outwardly normal in most ways. But Lisa was also alarmingly skinny, and she had bruises on her body and stains on her clothes. She had no toys of her own, and she came over to play with Kathy's young grandson nearly every day, as if she had nowhere else to go. Kathy noticed that Lisa and her father-a widower named Gordon Jensen, who worked at the park as a handyman-slept in an open camper shell in the back of a pickup truck, even on nights when it was freezing.
"Lisa was tattered and torn," Kathy later said. "She was a little ragamuffin."
Just as Lisa looked to Kathy's grandson for company, Lisa's father, Gordon, turned to Kathy for emotional support. He confided in her about how much he missed his late wife, who he said had died of cancer when Lisa was just an infant. Kathy watched him break down in tears as he remembered her. Jensen also complained about how hard it was to be a single father to Lisa.
When Kathy mentioned that her own daughter and son-in-law were eager to have a child but had not been able to conceive, it was Gordon Jensen who suggested that Kathy's daughter take little Lisa to live with her in Chico Hills, California, for three weeks-a trial run before, perhaps, he would grant them permission to legally adopt her. Lisa was excited by the idea. When Kathy bought new shoes for her for the trip to Chico Hills, Lisa wore them to bed.
It was an odd arrangement, to be sure, but for a while it worked out well. Lisa loved her new home with Kathy's daughter and husband, and they in turn loved the little girl.
Then, one day, young Lisa began describing the ways her father had abused her. Her stories were shocking and sickening-one police officer later said Lisa had been "severely molested and tortured." Kathy's daughter quickly called the police.
Officers from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department soon arrived at the trailer park, but by the time they got there Gordon Jensen was gone. He had packed up and disappeared, leaving Lisa behind with Kathy's family.
Investigator Cliff Harris of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department searched the Santa Cruz Ranch RV Resort and pulled a single fingerprint off video equipment that Jensen had installed in the park's community area. It appeared that Jensen had wiped off the equipment before leaving but had overlooked a single incriminating print. Harris ran the fingerprint and learned that Jensen, under the alias Curtis Kimball, had been arrested a year earlier, in 1985, after driving drunk and crashing a car with his young daughter, Lisa, in it. That year, a district attorney charged Jensen with driving under the influence and endangering the welfare of a child.
But Jensen failed to show up at court on those char...
On March 3, 2015, a volunteer genealogist at a not-for-profit organization called DNAAdoption opened the following email:
SUBJECT: Unknown Person Search
MESSAGE: I work for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. I am working a cold case involving a kidnapping of a child when she was approx. age 2; she was recovered at approx. age 5. We do not know her real name, date of birth, etc. She is now grown in her '30s and the only known survivor of the suspect. As we back track the suspect for other victims we are attempting to tell her who she is. We have already signed up with Ancestry DNA and gotten a hit on a second cousin. I have been reading your site and would like to ask if you had any other advice given the uniqueness of our search.
The person who sent the email was Deputy Peter Headley of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Crimes Against Children Detail. The volunteer was me.
It was only a few months earlier that I had signed up as a search angel with DNAAdoption, a group that teaches adoptees how to identify biological relatives using autosomal DNA. Nearly all of the emails that I opened were from adoptees hoping to learn how to identify their birth parents, and I did my best to answer their questions. But this email was different. I was intrigued, so I immediately called Deputy Headley to learn more.
He told me the story of a girl who had been abducted and was now part of a long-cold case. Her name was Lisa Jensen, and her story-at least the part of it that was known to law enforcement-began in 1986, when Lisa was around five years old and living at the Santa Cruz Ranch RV Resort. It was an unremarkable trailer park tucked around the redwood trees of California's Santa Cruz Mountains, on the site of a bygone theme park called Santa's Village.
That year, Lisa befriended a woman named Kathy Decker, who lived in a mobile home at the park. Kathy came to know Lisa as a friendly and chatty child, outwardly normal in most ways. But Lisa was also alarmingly skinny, and she had bruises on her body and stains on her clothes. She had no toys of her own, and she came over to play with Kathy's young grandson nearly every day, as if she had nowhere else to go. Kathy noticed that Lisa and her father-a widower named Gordon Jensen, who worked at the park as a handyman-slept in an open camper shell in the back of a pickup truck, even on nights when it was freezing.
"Lisa was tattered and torn," Kathy later said. "She was a little ragamuffin."
Just as Lisa looked to Kathy's grandson for company, Lisa's father, Gordon, turned to Kathy for emotional support. He confided in her about how much he missed his late wife, who he said had died of cancer when Lisa was just an infant. Kathy watched him break down in tears as he remembered her. Jensen also complained about how hard it was to be a single father to Lisa.
When Kathy mentioned that her own daughter and son-in-law were eager to have a child but had not been able to conceive, it was Gordon Jensen who suggested that Kathy's daughter take little Lisa to live with her in Chico Hills, California, for three weeks-a trial run before, perhaps, he would grant them permission to legally adopt her. Lisa was excited by the idea. When Kathy bought new shoes for her for the trip to Chico Hills, Lisa wore them to bed.
It was an odd arrangement, to be sure, but for a while it worked out well. Lisa loved her new home with Kathy's daughter and husband, and they in turn loved the little girl.
Then, one day, young Lisa began describing the ways her father had abused her. Her stories were shocking and sickening-one police officer later said Lisa had been "severely molested and tortured." Kathy's daughter quickly called the police.
Officers from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department soon arrived at the trailer park, but by the time they got there Gordon Jensen was gone. He had packed up and disappeared, leaving Lisa behind with Kathy's family.
Investigator Cliff Harris of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department searched the Santa Cruz Ranch RV Resort and pulled a single fingerprint off video equipment that Jensen had installed in the park's community area. It appeared that Jensen had wiped off the equipment before leaving but had overlooked a single incriminating print. Harris ran the fingerprint and learned that Jensen, under the alias Curtis Kimball, had been arrested a year earlier, in 1985, after driving drunk and crashing a car with his young daughter, Lisa, in it. That year, a district attorney charged Jensen with driving under the influence and endangering the welfare of a child.
But Jensen failed to show up at court on those char...
