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“I Know Who You Are”: DNA Sleuthing with Barbara-Rae Venter

“I Know Who You Are”: DNA Sleuthing with Barbara-Rae Venter In-Person

For twelve years the Golden State Killer terrorized California, stalking victims and killing without remorse. Then he simply disappeared, for the next forty-four years, until an amateur DNA sleuth opened her laptop.

In I Know Who You Are: How An Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked The Golden State Killer And Changed Crime Fighting Forever, Barbara Rae-Venter reveals how she went from researching her family history as a retiree to hunting for a notorious serial killer—and how she became the nation’s leading authority on investigative genetic genealogy, the most dazzling new crime-fighting weapon to appear in decades.

Rae-Venter leads readers on a vivid journey through the many cases she tackled, often starting with little more than a DNA sample. From the first criminal case she ever solved to the search for the Golden State Killer, Rae-Venter shares haunting, often thrilling accounts of how she helped solve some of America’s most chilling cold cases in the span of just three years.

I Know Who You Are captures both the exhilaration of the moment of discovery and the sheer depth of emotion that lingers around cold cases, informing Rae-Venter’s careful approach to her work. It is a story of relentless curiosity, of constant invention and reinvention, and of human beings striving to answer the most elemental questions about themselves: What defines identity? Where do we belong? And are we truly who we think we are?

Barbara will be joined in conversation for this program with Steve Broback of Dent. Book signing to follow. In partnership with Dent. This program will be livestreamed and available to view later. Click here to watch online.

Date:
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Time:
5:30pm - 6:30pm
Time Zone:
Mountain Time - US & Canada (change)
Location:
John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall
Campus:
The Community Library
Audience:
  Adults  
Categories:
  Lectures & Conversations  
Registration has closed.

Barbara Rae-Venter is a New Zealand–born American investigative genetic genealogist, biochemist, and retired patent attorney best known for her work helping the FBI and other investigators identify Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of California at San Diego and later a law degree at the University of Texas at Austin Law School. Rae-Venter is a founder and the president of Firebird Forensics Group, a not-for-profit corporation. Her investigative work earned her a place on the Time 100 list of most influential people in 2019, and she was recognized by the journal Nature as one of “10 People Who Mattered in Science in 2018.”

Event Organizer

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Martha Williams