DNA testing and a genealogy database reportedly provided police with a breakthrough in the infamous Golden State Killer case. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested Wednesday by the Sacramento Sheriff on charges of murder. Police link the alleged Golden State Killer to 12 homicides, 45 rapes, and 120 home invasions in the 1970s and ’80s in California.

Investigators sequenced DNA from crime scenes that had been stored for decades and plugged the genetic profile of the suspected assailant into an online genealogy database. Officers found distant relatives of DeAngelo’s and traced their DNA to his front door, The New York Times reported.

Although police say they have a range of evidence in the case, they are touting the strength of