LOUISVILLE (WHAS11) -- Thirty years after an 8-year-old Indiana girl was raped and murdered, police have made an arrest in the case. Detectives said DNA evidence linked John Miller to the little girl.
Allen County Prosecutor Karen E. Richards said, "Any time law enforcement investigates a case they use every tool in the toolbox. I think it's become pretty clear in general that DNA in all shapes and forms is a tool in toolbox."
Sites like ancestry.com and 23andMe have soared in popularity in recent years.
But now there are new questions about how that DNA is being used after you get your results and who has access to it in the future.
"There literally no limit to what you're putting out there for other people to look at," Brian Butler said.
Local defense attorney Brian Bulter brings the Fourth Amendment to the forefront of the discussion when talking DNA. He said his worry would be privacy and how far is too far.
"It’s a continuing societal discussion about how much of our freedoms do we want to give up in order to assist law enforcement and it’s a difficult question," Butler said.
For now, each genealogy site has set their own standards.
Ancestry.com agrees to release information to police by court order, within its online privacy policy.
MyHeritage.com has a similar policy.
But Butler said this is just the beginning of a bigger conversation surrounding privacy law in the United States.
"As a society, we have to take a step back and think how much privacy do we want to give up?" Butler said.
►Contact reporter Shay McAlister at smcalister@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Shay) and Facebook.