Candy left at break-in helps identify suspect
Posted on Saturday, May 17, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/225961/
JONESBORO — He wasn’t caught red-handed, but Jonesboro police said Friday that a man who broke into a veterinarian clinic did have a fistful of candy.
Detectives used a partially eaten Snickers found at the Cato Pet Hospital in west Jonesboro to track down the suspect in its January 2007 burglary. Police sent the nougat-filled chocolate bar to the state Crime Laboratory, where medical examiners obtained DNA, Jonesboro detective Jason Simpkins said.
Because of a backlog of other cases, it took the laboratory a while to match the DNA with that of a Lake City man convicted of several offenses, the detective said.
On Thursday, police arrested Brian Douglas Bass, 39, and charged him with commercial breaking and entering and theft, both felonies. Bass is being held in the Craighead County jail with bail set at $ 50, 000.
Bass will be arraigned in Craighead County Circuit Court on June 25.
Simpkins said Bass confessed to breaking into the veterinarian clinic by removing an air-conditioning unit and crawling through a window. Office equipment, money, veterinarian supplies and medicine for animals were reported missing.
About $ 1, 000 worth of items were taken, Simpkins said.
But the suspect left one thing that led to his capture.
On a counter was a Snickers bar with a bite-sized chunk missing.
“He had taken a bite out of it and apparently set it down and forgot it,” Simpkins said.
Police also found two empty cans of Vienna sausages in the clinic.
But it was the candy bar that promises hunger satisfaction that left police satisfied they had the right suspect.
The DNA testing showed it was Bass who ate the Snickers, Simpkins said.
Bass’ DNA was on file at the crime lab. He had been convicted before of breaking and entering, possession of a controlled substance and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
“Basically, you can get [DNA ] if you get in contact with something,” crime lab Director Kermit Channel said. “It doesn’t mean everything you touch will have DNA. But if you’re eating a candy bar, you’ll salivate a bit, and you’ll transfer a lot of DNA.”
It’s not the first time the state crime lab has extracted DNA from food, Channel said.
“We’ve had a couple of cases like this before,” he said.
“But this was a Snickers bar. I wouldn’t have left it. It’s a crime alone not to eat it all.”