Barbara Rae-Venter
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Barbara Rae-Venter (born July 17, 1948) is a New Zealand-born American genetic genealogist, biologist, and retired
patent attorney A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing patent applications and op ...
best known for her work helping police and investigators identify
Joseph James DeAngelo Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, sex offender, burglar, and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 an ...
as the
Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, sex offender, burglar, and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 a ...
. Born in New Zealand, she earned a doctorate at the
University of California at San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
and later completed law school at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
. After retirement from her law career, Rae-Venter started researching her family history as a hobby in an attempt to help a family member find his biological family. As part of this work, she was asked to help identify a woman who had been abducted as a child. Her efforts in this case eventually identified
Terry Peder Rasmussen Terry Peder Rasmussen (December 23, 1943 – December 28, 2010) was an American serial killer. Rasmussen killed at least six people in a series of crimes that spanned decades and stretched across the continental United States. Due to his use of ...
as the suspect in the Bear Brook murders in New Hampshire. In 2019 she was included in the ''Time'' 100 list of most influential people and in 2018 was recognized in
Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature (journal), Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial s ...
, a list of "people who mattered" in science by the journal ''Nature''.


Early career

Barbara Rae was born on July 17, 1948, in
Auckland, New Zealand Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...
, and raised in Auckland's
Remuera Remuera is an affluent inner city suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located four kilometres southeast of the city centre. Remuera is characterised by many large houses, often Edwardian or mid 20th century. A prime example of a "leafy" sub ...
neighborhood. She moved to the United States at age 20, and has United States citizenship. She earned a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degree in Psychology and Biochemistry from the
University of California at San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
in 1972, and received her
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in Biology at the same institution in 1976. From 1976 to 1979 she was a postdoctoral fellow at
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a cancer research and treatment center located in Buffalo, New York. Founded by surgeon Roswell Park in 1898, the center was the first in the United States to specifically focus on cancer research. The ...
(then known as the Roswell Park Memorial Institute) in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
. From 1979 to 1983 she was assistant professor at the
University of Texas Medical Branch The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. In Febr ...
in Galveston, Texas. She matriculated at
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
Law School in May 1983 and received her J.D. in August 1985. She later worked as a patent lawyer in California specializing in biotechnology, and was an assistant professor at Stanford University from 1988 to 1990. Rae-Venter focused her research career on
breast The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and sec ...
and gastrointestinal cancer.


Genetic genealogy

The field of genetic genealogy was developed largely by volunteer family history hobbyists, and Rae-Venter realized that the techniques used to identify family members in adoption cases could have wider uses in law enforcement and the identification of suspects and victims of crime. Some law enforcement agencies were initially dismissive of the idea. Rae-Venter's interest in
genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
began when she found a relative through a website for sharing
family trees A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms. Representations of ...
who was looking to identify his biological father. In order to help her relative search for his father, she completed an online course on how to use genetic testing to find relatives, eventually becoming one of the course's teachers. Rae-Venter has been involved in solving several high-profile criminal cases, including the Bear Brook murders in New Hampshire and the
Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, sex offender, burglar, and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 a ...
in California. In 2018, after her role in using genetics and genealogy to solve crimes became well-known, Rae-Venter was named in ''Nature'''s list of " 10 People who Mattered this Year". She was recognized in the 2019 ''Time'' 100 list of most influential people.


Bear Brook murders

Rae-Venter's initial involvement with using publicly-available genetic databases and family trees to contribute to criminal investigations started in 2015, when she was asked to assist investigators in identifying the true identity of a woman who had been kidnapped as an infant. In addition to searching for family members whose DNA matched the woman's genetic profile on publicly available websites, Rae-Venter suggested the woman submit her sample to closed databases in the hopes of finding more family members. The case evolved to require 20,000 hours of work and a significant number of volunteers who were able to identify the woman's birth name and to put her in contact with one of her grandfathers. In addition to identifying the woman's family and birth name, Rae-Venter and her team identified the birth mother of a relative found during the search, which allowed them to meet. The identification of this woman led authorities to link her kidnapper to a series of murders in New Hampshire, known as the Bear Brook murders. Rae-Venter contributed to the eventual identification of the suspect's true identity,
Terry Peder Rasmussen Terry Peder Rasmussen (December 23, 1943 – December 28, 2010) was an American serial killer. Rasmussen killed at least six people in a series of crimes that spanned decades and stretched across the continental United States. Due to his use of ...
, using DNA obtained from his autopsy after his death in prison. Rasmussen had been imprisoned for another murder under the name Larry Vanner. In 2019, three of the victims of the Bear Brook murders were identified as 24 year-old Marlyse Elizabeth Honeychurch, and her daughters, Marie Elizabeth Vaughn (6 years old) and Sarah Lynn McWaters (1 year old).


Golden State Killer

Paul Holes, an inspector who had been working on the
Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, sex offender, burglar, and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 a ...
case for decades, initially contacted Rae-Venter in March 2017 for her assistance in using genealogy to search for new leads in the case. In October 2017, Rae-Venter was contributing to the team attempting to identify the killer. Rae-Venter utilized
GEDmatch GEDmatch is an online service to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies. The website gained significant media coverage in April 2018 after it was used by law enforcement to identify a suspect in the Golden State Kille ...
, Family Tree DNA, and MyHeritage and provided structure to the team's genetic search efforts. The team isolated a DNA sample from a Golden State Killer crime scene to create a DNA profile that could be uploaded to the genealogy databases, which produced positive matches to several distant relatives, and from these Rae-Venter was able to build a
family tree A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms. Representations of ...
using traditional family research techniques. By identifying relatives of the killer, investigators could first work back to find a common ancestor, and then work forward to identify all members of the family's younger generations. Once all the members of a family had been identified, investigators could then start eliminating individuals who were not suspects. In the case of the Golden State Killer, the team needed to go back to great-great-great grandparents before starting to work forward. Multiple family trees needed to be constructed. This information was combined with predictions about ethnicity and physical appearance to narrow down the suspect list. Multiple pieces of evidence started to converge when the genetic profiles were considered, including the possibility that the suspect had
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
heritage. After the suspect had been identified, new DNA samples were collected from the suspect surreptitiously and tested against crime scene samples. The suspect's samples matched those from the killer, confirming his identity. Joseph DeAngelo was arrested on April 24, 2018. In the immediate aftermath of the arrest, Rae-Venter chose not to be publicly identified, out of fears for her personal safety. Several months after the arrest of the Golden State Killer, Rae-Venter allowed Holes to identify her publicly. The intervening months had seen increased interest in genetic genealogy, and additional people had been identified in the field. After her role in the Golden State Killer case became well-known, Rae-Venter was approached to assist in at least 50 unsolved cases, including homicides and unidentified victims.


Additional cases

As one of the first public faces of genetic genealogy in law enforcement in the United States, Rae-Venter has been asked to consult on additional cases, and also to comment on the ethics of using shared community data for law enforcement purposes. She has also been one of the most sought after voices when ethical questions arise about the use of shared genetic data by law enforcement. At the conclusion of the Golden State Killer case, Rae-Venter discussed future cases that she was working on, including the "Boy in the Box" case in Pennsylvania. In 2019, Rae-Venter helped identify Bobby Whitt, a boy who had been found in
Mebane, North Carolina Mebane is a city located mostly in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States, and partly in Orange County. The town was named for Alexander Mebane, an American Revolutionary War general and member of the U.S. Congress. It was incorporated ...
1998. Based on the DNA profile of the child, she determined that the child was likely of mixed Asian and white descent. Searches of online databases identified a possible relative, who could identify the child. Whitt's family had assumed he had returned to
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
with his mother. This discovery also resulted in the identification of his mother's remains. A suspect, who was already incarcerated on other charges was identified.


Personal life

In the late 1960s, while in Sydney, Australia, she met J. Craig Venter, an American soldier on leave from the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. They reunited while she was on a three-month hiking tour of Europe, and they were married in Geneva in 1968. They separated in 1980, and have one child. She married Joseph Elmer Huff III on September 21, 1981, divorcing in April, 1983. Later in his career, Venter became involved in the Human Genome Project, sequencing the first copy of the human
genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding g ...
. In the course of her research into her own
family tree A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms. Representations of ...
, Rae-Venter identified a great uncle who worked as a police officer in London during the time
Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer w ...
was active.


Selected publications

* * * *


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rae-Venter, Barbara 1948 births 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American women lawyers 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists American genealogists American women biologists living people naturalized citizens of the United States New Zealand emigrants to the United States New Zealand women scientists American patent attorneys people from Auckland University of California, San Diego alumni University of Texas School of Law alumni