For over a decade, a serial rapist attacked women alone on wooded roads outside Paris and left behind DNA that matched nothing in France's national database. In 2021, investigators tried something French citizens themselves aren't legally allowed to do: they sent the crime-scene profile through the FBI to a commercial ancestry database. A distant cousin's harmless curiosity about his own family tree became the thread that unraveled the case — and led straight to Bruno Llambrich, who died in custody before any court ever tested whether the method that caught him was legal. Three weeks before this episode was recorded, France's Constitutional Council struck down the law that would have made the technique legal going forward. Eli argues the tool works and the failure was in the drafting. Simone argues the workaround was chosen with eyes open, and no rewrite fixes that.

A note before you press play: this episode discusses sexual assault and covers a real, still-developing legal situation. We approach it with the same care we'd want if it were someone we knew.

You'll find the source list here: https://verbeditorial.github.io/precision-and-instinct-notes/episodes/08-le-predateur-des-bois.html

The hosts' voices in this episode are AI-generated. All research, writing, and production are done by a human team.