DNA Links Jailed Man To Local Child Sexual Assault Case

Earl Arde Mercer (Jail photo/file)

TEMPLE (November 4, 2013) A man whos serving an 18-month state jail sentence in an unrelated case has been served with an arrest warrant charging aggravated sexual assault of a child in the 2006 sexual assault of a Temple girl, who was 13 at the time of the attack.

An affidavit for the warrant, which was served last Thursday, says Earl Arde Mercer, 30, of Temple, had a sexual relationship with the girl in 2006.

When the family of the teenage girl filed a report, evidence including DNA was collected from the victim and preserved, but investigators hit a dead end in their search for a suspect.

But when Mercer was sent to the Bartlett State Jail earlier this year for the unrelated offense, his DNA was routinely collected for a national database.

When the Texas Department of Public Safety ran the DNA sample through the system it matched the evidence from the 2006 child sexual assault case.

On Monday Bell county deputies went to the state jail armed with another warrant, this time to collect another DNA sample from Mercer to confirm the match.

"It's just a matter of time that they're going get caught. Many of these individuals do believe that they're not going be caught and when I went to execute the search warrant today to get DNA on Mercer he was quite surprised," said Michele Cianci with the Bell County Sheriff's Department said.

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DNA Links Jailed Man To Local Child Sexual Assault Case