‘Yes, well, as you know, you opted-in to allow law enforcement access to your DNA results on GEDMatch when you loaded your profile to the website,’ Hannigan explained. Beck folded her hands politely in her lap, watching my expression closely. I felt like I was being studied. ‘Why don’t you tell us a little bit about why you loaded your DNA and allowed it to be accessed in that manner?’

I cleared my throat, giving Travis a quick side glance. He nodded so I looked at Hannigan and explained. ‘I recently did the 23andMe DNA ancestry kit and found out, because of its results, that I’m adopted,’ I said. Their expressions remained neutral save for a quick shared glance. I assumed they were conditioned not to react to surprising information like the average person would but I was curious about what they were thinking. ‘I wanted to find out more about my biological family, and when none of my matches from 23andMe responded to my messages, I decided to load it to GEDMatch to see if I could find any other family members who participated in different ancestry tests. The only thing I knew about my biological mother was that she was incarcerated in New York when she gave me up, so I thought I may find out more if I connected with the police in some way. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what opting into that would do.’

Hannigan and Beck both nodded politely, Hannigan taking out a small field notebook and pen from inside his jacket and flipping it open to take notes. He jotted down a quick line that I couldn’t quite read upside down before turning his attention back to me. This time, Beck addressed me.

‘Well, Liz, the reason we reached out to speak with you today is because, when you opted into that feature, we got a familial match to a DNA profile associated with a case that we are working on.’

‘A familial match? What does that mean exactly?’ I asked, hoping it didn’t make me look stupid. I could guess but decided to risk asking a dumb question to make sure I understood every detail. Travis looked like he wanted to say something but stayed silent and watchful. Maybe I should have picked his brain more before they arrived.

Hannigan took the reins again. ‘Basically, it means that DNA we’ve collected from a crime scene has enough markers in common with yours that we can conclude the suspect is related to you.’

‘Oh my God,’ I said, looking frantically at Travis.