To Solve a Cold Case, French Police Bent DNA Privacy Law

Genetic genealogy has revolutionized cold case investigations, yet its application in Europe creates significant legal and ethical friction. French authorities recently bypassed strict privacy regulations to identify the "Predator of the Woods," a serial rapist active from 1998 to 2008, by submitting DNA evidence to American databases. This breakthrough, which led to the identification of Bruno Lambrich-Gonzalvo, highlights the tension between modern forensic capabilities and European data protection laws that prioritize individual privacy over law enforcement access. While the technique successfully resolved a decades-old mystery, the French constitutional court has since struck down legislation intended to authorize such practices, reflecting a broader European resistance to the state use of genetic data. As police units across the continent face pressure from victims to adopt these methods, the future of genetic genealogy in European criminal justice remains legally precarious.