The importance of DNA samples has been highlighted as Belleville police officers have arrested a man alleged to have been involved in a break, enter and theft back in 2002.
Officers say a home was broken into on Grier Street in Belleville in 2002 and a quantity of cash and coins were stolen from a safe.
DNA samples were taken but no matches were found at the time.
Then, in July of 2016 there was a commercial break-in on Pinnacle Street. John Charles Serson was arrested and convicted for that crime and ordered to provide a DNA sample.
In time, the Centre of Forensic Sciences determined that the sample matched the one taken 14 years earlier.
Monday, Serson, 52, was arrested and charged in relation to the 2002 crime.
He appears in court May 17.