Records: DNA from tissue led to Golden State Killer arrest

Court records show DNA from a tissue left in a trash can led authorities to arrest a former California police officer suspected of being the Golden State Killer.

The documents released Friday about the arrest of 72-year-old Joseph DeAngelo detail the case that Sacramento County sheriff’s investigators pieced together to obtain an arrest warrant in April

DeAngelo is suspected of committing at least a dozen killings and roughly 50 rapes in the 1970s and 80s.

Investigators linked DeAngelo to the killings by plugging DNA collected from a semen sample at one of the crime scenes into a genealogical website.

Authorities say they then collected trash from a can left outside DeAngelo’s house to make the final DNA match.