reporter: a critical piece of the puzzle would be found here in the third largest dna repository in the world. california has been collecting dna from convicted felons since 2004. police had the serial killer s dna from the crime scenes. was it possible it was here as well? we are on the cutting edge of this technology. reporter: jill spriggs who heads the lab says forensic scientists recently developed a powerful investigative weapon called the familial dna search program, computer software that can find similarities between crime scene dna and the dna of a convicted felon. if the killer dna s not in the database, maybe a relative s is. it is only convicted offenders we re comparing to, not arrestees in california. reporter: two years ago detectives ran the killer s dna searching for a link but no match. then a major break. last year criminalists entered the dna of a man recently convicted of a felony weapons charge. his name was christopher
2004. police had the serial killer s dna from the crime scenes wasn t possible, it was here as well. we are on the cutting edge of the technology. reporter: jill who heads the lab says that forensic scientist recently developed a power if investigative developed a powerful weapon, falled the familial dna search program. it can find similarities between crime scene dna and a dna of a convicted felon. if the killer s dna is not in the database, maybe a relative s is. two years ago, detectives ran the killer s dna searching for a link, but no match. then a major break. last year, criminalists entered the dna of a man recently convicted of a felony wellens charge. his name was christopher franklin. months later, detectives ran the grim sleeper s dna again for the second time, hoping for a match to a family member. they got it.
killer s dna from the crime scenes. was it possible it was here as well? we are on the cutting edge of this technology. reporter: jill says forensic scientists recently developed a powerful investigative weapon. computer software that can find similarities between crime scene dna and the dna of a convicted felon. if a killer s dna is not in the data base, maybe a relative s is. only convicted offenders we compare to and not arrestees in california. reporter: two years ago detectives ran the killer s dna searching for a link but no match. then a major break. last year criminalists entered the dna of a man recently convicted of a felony weapons charge. his name was christopher franklin. months later detectives ran the grim sleeper killer s dna again for the second time hoping for a match to a family member. they got it. detectives zeroed in on christopher franklin s father.
arrestees. reporter: two years ago, detectives ran the killer s dna searching for a link. no match. then a break. they entered a dna of a man convicted of a felony weapons charge. his name was christopher franklin. months later, they ran the grim sleeper s killer s dna hoping for a match to a family member. they got it. detectives zeroed in on christopher franklin s father, 57-year-old lonnie david franklin, who lived in south los angeles within walking distance to one of the victims, 18-year-old alisha monique alexander. at one time, the man described as a polite neighbor even worked as a garage attendant for los angeles police. detectives were confident they found their man but before they could close in, they would need a sample of his dna. with franklin under surveillance, they picked up a piece of uneaten pizza crust along with some eating utensils. police sent it all to the lab. soon after, they say, they had a
relief well to kill off this well. sweran we had about 1.5 million so that s why this containment samples scored. new cap effort could at least reporter: a critical piece of the puzzle would be found here. spare the gulf of several more the third largest dna repository weeks of tens of thousands of barrels of oil spewing into the gulf. in the world. california has been collecting we ll take it. dna from convicted felons since ed lavandera in new orleans. thank you. 2004. police have the serial killer s seeing the oil disaster up dna from the crime scenes. close, a cnn team goes on a was it possible it was here as deepwater dive in the gulf of mexico. well? they found hidden oil far we are on the cutting edge of this technology. benoeth the service. reporter: jill, who heads the that part of the story in a live lab, says scientists developed a report about five minutes from now. let s do this. powerful investigative weapon let s get to the amazing story. called the familia