Earl Arde Mercer (Jail photo\/file) <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\"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. <\/p>\n
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See original here: 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. Continue reading
\nDNA Links Jailed Man To Local Child Sexual Assault Case<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"