The Golden State Killer

Algorithms That Solved Mysteries · 2:27

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Lyrics

[Verse 1]
For decades he haunted the Golden State's nights
Thirteen murders, fifty more crimes of fright
The East Area Rapist, the Diamond Knot Killer too
Joseph DeAngelo, but nobody knew

[Chorus]
Sequence alignment finds the family thread
Graph traversal maps the tree overhead
Clustering groups show where bloodlines meet
Three algorithms made the case complete
DNA to data, data to the door
Solving cold cases like never before

[Verse 2]
Crime scene DNA went to GEDmatch's base
Where people search for their ancestral trace
Smith-Waterman and BLAST compared each strand
Finding partial matches across the land

[Chorus]
Sequence alignment finds the family thread
Graph traversal maps the tree overhead
Clustering groups show where bloodlines meet
Three algorithms made the case complete
DNA to data, data to the door
Solving cold cases like never before

[Verse 3]
Distant cousins lit the digital trail
Graph algorithms followed without fail
Census records, obituaries scanned
Building family trees throughout the land

[Bridge]
From genetic fragments to family trees
Clustering algorithms found the keys
Where bloodlines crossed and families met
The killer's identity in the net

[Chorus]
Sequence alignment finds the family thread
Graph traversal maps the tree overhead
Clustering groups show where bloodlines meet
Three algorithms made the case complete
DNA to data, data to the door
Solving cold cases like never before

[Outro]
Now DeAngelo serves his life behind bars
And genetic genealogy reaches the stars
One hundred fifty cases solved and counting more
When algorithms unlock mystery's door

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