This undated photo provided by The Fayetteville Police Dept. shows 43-year-old Darold Wayne Bowden after his arrest on suspicion of rape. Police say they used online genealogical data to identify and... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated photo provided by The Fayetteville Police Dept. shows 43-year-old Darold Wayne Bowden after his arrest on suspicion of rape. Police say they used online genealogical data to identify and track down Bowden. a suspect in a series of unsolved rapes dating back a decade. The Fayetteville... (Associated Press) 
 
 RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Investigators compared online family tree data with crime-scene DNA evidence to identify and track down a suspect in a series of North Carolina rapes from a decade ago, police said Wednesday. 
 
 One of the lead detectives called the approach, similar to what was used in the "Golden State Killer" cold case in California, a "game-changer" for investigators who had few leads in the assaults that terrorized Fayetteville starting in 2006. 
 
 Darold Wayne Bowden, 43, has been charged with multiple rape counts related to six assaults from 2006 to 2008, the Fayetteville Police Department said in a news release. 
 
 Lt. John Somerindyke told The Associated Press that he has reached five of the six victims, all of whom have left Fayetteville. 
 
 "To say they were ecstatic would be an understatement," he said. "They're all very pleased with the outcome." 
 
 To crack the case, Somerindyke said police submitted crime-scene DNA evidence to a company that compared it with online genealogical data uploaded by relatives of the suspect to ancestry research websites. 
 
 The company narrowed their search to Bowden as a person of interest, and investigators obtained a current sample of his DNA to confirm his link to the crimes, the detective said. He declined to say how they obtained the current sample, which was tested by the state crime lab, because they plan to use similar methods in other cases. 
 
 Somerindyke said comparing DNA evidence with genealogical data — the same search method that helped lead investigators in California to alleged Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo in April — is a "game-changer" for the department. 
 
 "It's bringing all our cold cases to life," he said. 
 
 DNA in one case is ready to be sent to the company called Parabon NanoLabs, while the department is requesting funding to send evidence from two other cases, he said. 
 
 Police said they didn't know if Bowden has a lawyer, and the public defender's office didn't immediately respond to an email asking if they were representing him. A message left at a phone listing for Bowden, who was being held in jail, wasn't returned. 
 
 District Attorney Billy West said at a news conference the arrest shows investigators' persistence, noting that fear over the rapes a decade ago represented a "very tough and difficult time for our community." 
 
 "This individual has been in our community, walking around our streets, for the last 10 years, probably smirking thinking he got away with this. Well, he didn't," West said. 
 
 On Wednesday, authorities also released a series of photos of the suspect dating back to 2003 in hopes that any other possible victims may recognize him and come forward. 
 
 A photo taken during his arrest on the rape charges shows him shirtless, with a swastika tattooed on his chest. 
 
 Somerindyke noted that while the suspect has been arrested before on unrelated charges, he appears to have avoided mandatory DNA collection by authorities because of the timing and nature of the offenses. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Waggoner at www.twitter.com/mjwaggonernc and Drew at www.twitter.com/JonathanLDrew ||||| Fayetteville police released this photo of Bowden being arrested by US Marshals and officers with the department. (Fayetteville Police via CBS 17) 
 
 FAYETTEVILLE, NC (WNCN) - Fayetteville police said an arrest has been made in the case of the "Ramsey Street Rapist.” 
 
 Darold Bowden, 43, of Linden has been arrested in connection with six rapes. 
 
 DNA evidence was used to connect Bowden to the rapes, police said. 
 
 He's being held under a $18.8 million bond after being charged with: 
 
 Three counts first-degree forcible rape 
 
 Three counts first-degree forcible sex offense 
 
 Four counts second-degree forcible rape 
 
 13 counts second-degree forcible sex offense 
 
 First-degree statutory rape 
 
 Indecent liberties with a child 
 
 Six counts first-degree kidnapping 
 
 Five counts first-degree burglary 
 
 Two counts felony larceny 
 
 Two counts felony possession of stolen goods 
 
 "I'm just glad we got the guy finally," said Lt. John Somerindyke with Fayetteville police. "This is just the beginning." 
 
 According to police, Bowden was wanted in connection with at least six rapes that date back to 2006. 
 
 March 31, 2006 – Village at Carvers Falls Apartments 
 
 August 23, 2006 – 4400 block of Ramsey Street 
 
 February 12, 2007 – Apartments on Bubble Creek Court 
 
 March 6, 2007 – Village at Carvers Falls Apartments 
 
 September 18, 2007 – Heather Ridge Apartments 
 
 January 26, 2008 – Apartments on Bubble Creek Court 
 
 The rapes happened in the North Fayetteville/Ramsey Street area and had remained unsolved, police said. 
 
 Chief Gina Hawkins said there were at least six victims from these rapes. 
 
 DNA belonging to Bowden was recovered at three of the crime scenes and was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System. 
 
 Although the DNA did not match a particular person, police did receive a case-to-case match in connection with a March 2004 "peeping" incident in Harnett County, police said. ||||| Snapshot Genetic Genealogy 
 
 Genetic Genealogy (GG) is the combination of genetic analysis with traditional historical and genealogical research to study family history. For forensic investigations, it can be used to identify remains by tying the DNA to a family with a missing person or to point to the likely identity of a perpetrator. 
 
 By comparing a DNA sample to a database of DNA from volunteer participants, it is possible to determine whether there are any relatives of the DNA sample in the database and how closely related they are (see Snapshot Kinship Inference for more details). This information can then be cross-referenced with other data sources used in traditional genealogical research, such as census records, vital records, obituaries and newspaper archives. 
 
 Why Use Genetic Genealogy? 
 
 Genetic genealogy gives you a powerful new tool to generate leads on unknown subjects. When a genetic genealogy search yields useful related matches to an unknown DNA sample, it can narrow down a suspect list to a region, a family, or even an individual. Paired with Snapshot DNA Phenotyping to further reduce the list of possible matches, there is no more powerful identification method besides a direct DNA comparison. Identity can then be confirmed using traditional STR analysis. 
 
 How Does This Technique Differ From Familial Searches in the CODIS Database? 
 
 Our genetic genealogy service is somewhat like familial search, but it differs in three very important ways: (1) we only search public genetic genealogy databases, not government-owned criminal (STR profile) databases, such as CODIS; (2) because the DNA SNP profiles we generate contain vastly more information than traditional STR profiles, genetic relatedness can be detected at a far greater distance (see Snapshot Kinship Inference); and (3) because genetic genealogy matches can be cross-referenced by name with traditional genealogy sources, such as Ancestry.com, existing family trees can be used to expedite tree-building and case-solving. This technology and our innovative techniques combine to create a groundbreaking system for forensic human identification. 
 
 How Genetic Genealogy Works 
 
 Genetic genealogy uses autosomal DNA (aDNA) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to determine how closely related two individuals are. Unlike other genetic markers, such as mitochondrial DNA or Y chromosome DNA, aDNA is inherited from all ancestral lines and passed on by both males and females and thus can be used to compare any two individuals, regardless of how they are related. However, aDNA SNPs are more difficult to obtain from forensic samples, which is why Parabon has created an optimized laboratory protocol to ensure high-quality results even from small, degraded DNA samples. 
 
 The standard aDNA metric used by genetic genealogists is the amount of DNA that two people are likely to have inherited from a recent common ancestor. This can be estimated by looking for long stretches of identical DNA. While alleles can easily be shared by chance at one or a few SNPs, it is highly unlikely for two unrelated people to share a long stretch of DNA. Therefore, only segments above a certain length are counted. The length of these shared segments is measured in centimorgans (cM), a measure of genetic distance, and the total number of cM shared across all chromosomes can be used to determine approximately how closely related two people are. The figure below shows how shared segments of DNA on a single chromosome are broken up with each generation, leading to shorter shared segments for more distant relatives. Using a public genetic genealogy database, DNA from an unknown person can be compared to roughly 1 million other people to see whether any of them are related. 
 
 DNA database matches serve as clues on which traditional genealogy methods can build, starting with building the matches' family trees using a wide variety of information sources. During the tree building process, the genetic genealogist searched for common ancestors who appear across multiple family trees of the matches. Ideally, marriages between the descendants of the identified common ancestors are discovered. Then descendancy research is employed to search for descendants at the intersection of these common ancestors who were born at a time that is consistent with the subject's estimated age range. The goal of this search is to narrow down the possible individuals to a set of names, a family, or even an individual. 
 
 The amount of information available can vary widely. In some cases, we have been able to produce names and contact information for distant and close relatives. In other cases, we have only been able to produce a small region in a US state from which the family of the person-of-interest originated. In some cases there will be no usable genetic genealogy data, rendering further analysis impossible, but continuous monitoring for future matches can be arranged. And, in some instances, we will be able to fully identify the person-of-interest. 
 
 Genetic Genealogy Use Cases 
 
 Genetic genealogy has traditionally been used to discover new relatives and build a full family tree. However, it can also be used to discover the identity of an unknown individual by using DNA to identify relatives and then using genealogy research to build family trees and deduce who the unknown individual could be. These techniques have primarily been used to discover the family history of adopted individuals, but they apply equally as well to forensic applications. Genetic genealogy has been used to identify victims' remains, as well as suspects, in a number of high-profile cases. Most recently, genetic genealogy was used to zero in on a suspect in the Golden State Killer case. 
 
 Because genetic genealogy uses the same type of data generated for Snapshot DNA Phenotyping and Snapshot Kinship, the analysis can quickly be performed on existing cases, and new cases have a wide array of options for generating new leads from a single DNA sample. ||||| This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the day. 
 
 A Linden man has been arrested in a series of rapes that took place along the Ramsey Street corridor between 2006 and 2008, the Fayetteville Police Department said during a news conference Wednesday. 
 
 Darold Wayne Bowden, 43, is a suspect in six sexual assaults. He is being held at the Cumberland County Detention Center with bail set at $18.8 million. He is scheduled to have a court appearance on Thursday. 
 
 During a news conference Wednesday morning, members of the Fayetteville Police Department and the District Attorney's Office outlined how Bowden came to be arrested. Law enforcement said DNA technology was key to identifying Bowden and making an arrest in the assaults. 
 
 The Fayetteville Police Department investigated six assaults that occurred in the North Fayetteville/Ramsey Street area. These assaults were committed by a suspect who was dubbed the “Ramsey Street rapist.” 
 
 No other information about the news conference was immediately available. 
 
 The attacks took place in neighborhoods in north Fayetteville. The assaults and the dates they happened were: 
 
 March 2006: A woman reports being raped at the Village at Carver Falls at Ramsey Street and Carvers Falls Road. 
 
 Aug. 23, 2006: A 23-year-old woman was raped after a man grabbed her from behind while she was jogging in the area of Ramsey Street and Oates Drive. 
 
 Feb. 12, 2007: A 45-year-old woman living in the King’s Grant Condominiums on Bubble Creek Court reported that she was raped by a man who broke into her residence. 
 
 Sept. 18, 2007: A 21-year-old woman living in the Heather Ridge Apartments on Ramsey Street, between Kinlaw and Carvers Fall roads, reported being raped by a man who broke into her apartment. 
 
 Jan. 26, 2008: A 29-year-old woman said she was raped by a man who broke into her residence in the King’s Grant condominiums. 
 
 Feb. 5, 2008: A woman said a man tried to rape her, attacking her while she was walking on the Cape Fear River Trail, near Rivercliff Road. 
 
 For months after the attacks, women in the area lived in fear and with a state of heightened awareness, especially those who frequently used the Cape Fear River Trail. 
 
 Women began walking the trail in pairs or bringing their dogs along for protection. 
 
 A group of women from the Korean Presbyterian Church invited other women to join them in walks. 
 
 In the weeks and months afterward, police stepped up patrols in the neighborhoods of the attacks, along north Ramsey Street and posted additional officers on the river trail. 
 
 [Fayetteville police closer to catching Ramsey Street rapist] 
 
 Staff writer Nancy McCleary can be reached at nmccleary@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3568.
– Online genealogical data led authorities to the suspected Golden State Killer. Now it may have identified the "Ramsey Street Rapist" responsible for at least six rapes in Fayetteville, NC, from March 2006 to January 2008, most following apartment break-ins in the area of Ramsey Street. Arrested shirtless at his home in Lindon on Wednesday (a photo shows a swastika tattoo on his chest), Darold Bowden, 43, is due to appear in court at 2:30pm Thursday, reports WRAL. A long list of charges includes 23 counts of forcible rape or forcible sex offense, six counts of first-degree kidnapping, and one count of indecent liberties with a child, stemming from the 2007 rape of a 15-year-old, per WBTV and Fayetteville Observer. "I'm just glad we got the guy finally," says Lt. John Somerindyke. Held on $18.8 million bond, Bowden was identified through Parabon NanoLabs' genetic genealogy testing, which involved searching for relatives of the suspect by comparing crime scene DNA with genealogical data available online. Per the AP, Somerindyke says police then obtained a separate sample of Bowden's DNA, which proved they had the right person. "This individual has been in our community, walking on the streets for the last 10 years, smirking and thinking he got away with it. Well, he didn't," says District Attorney Billy West. Meanwhile, friends and family describe Bowden as a generous heating and air conditioning technician. Despite a lengthy criminal record, "he ain't the type of person to do that," his father tells the Observer. (A cold case rape was recently attributed to this serial rapist.)