Lessons Learned from the East Area Rapist Series

Presentation summary:

This presentation will provide a very brief overview of the East Area Rapist series in Sacramento County and how multiple crime analysis avenues were exploited to assist in the investigation in this series.  Multiple lessons were learned during the Task Force Investigation from re-evaluating criminal behavior, to fingerprint databases, trace evidence and DNA advances. Many disconnects between investigators and technologies were uncovered, allowing investigators to learn methodologies now being applied to other violent crime investigations. The most notable being the use of Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy, which is being challenged both legally and ethically.

BIO:

Paige Kneeland is a Deputy Sheriff with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, since 2003. Currently assigned to the Centralized Investigations Division Homicide Bureau, she investigates unsolved/cold homicide, sexual assault and long-term missing-person cases.

 Paige serves as the Chairman for the FBI’s ViCAP National Advisory Board and is a certified Crime Analyst with the State of California. She is the elected Vice President (Board Member) for the Southeastern Homicide Investigators Association (SEHIA). Paige acted as the Logistics Manager for the East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer Task Force formed in 2010 and coordinated the multi-jurisdictional, collaborative Missing in California events in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

 She earned a Master of Science in Forensic Science from the University of New Haven (1999), and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from North Georgia College and State University (1997).