DNA evidence has netted arrests in three 2005 burglaries in Carroll County.
The suspects “didn?t know that all the magic of the lab would come back to haunt” them, said Maryland State Trooper Guy Brauning, of the Westminster barracks.
“They thought they got away with it,” he said.
Blood and other DNA found on broken glass and a piece of clothing were submitted to the new Maryland State Police Forensic Science Laboratory in Pikesville, linking Joseph Allen Ott, 26, of Taneytown, and Jessica Michelle Phelps, 23, of Union Bridge, to a residential burglary that occurred in December in Westminster. The biological proof also tied Ott to another home break-in the same month in New Windsor,said police, who believe the pair were involved in about 20 additional burglaries throughout the area.
A total of $20,000 in jewelry, cameras, camcorders, valuable coins and a handgun were taken from both residences, Brauning said recently.
“Most victims were severely traumatized,” he said. “This scared a lot of people because the houses were ransacked, windows and doors were broken, homes were trashed and clothing dumped out.”
A few stolen items were returned, but mostly, Brauning said, the arrests gave victims some good news after feeling so violated. DNA also recently pinpointed Michael Patrick Osborne, 47, of Mount Airy, in a June 2005 robbery of a Jiffy Lube oil change and lube center in Mount Airy, where he allegedly took less than $100, but left behind DNA on a broken window.
In addition, a suspect in a third residential burglary that happened in 2003 in Westminster has been identified, police said in a news release.
A preliminary DNA match has been found and criminal charges are pending. As the Maryland DNA database grows and more officers are trained to collect DNA evidence, arrests in years-old crimes will become more common, said First Sgt. Russell Newell.
“Going into a crime scene, you remove something, but in the process you always leave something, too,” he said.
