DNA on beer bottle leads police to burglary suspect
DNA on beer bottles left at two burglaries in St. Peter last summer led police to their suspect.
St. Peter police were called to a home on the morning of June 16, 2023 for a report of a burglary. The husband told police he and his wife woke up that morning to find the kitchen window screen had been damaged. The man then discovered that someone had gone through cabinets, drawers, and dressers and taken a wide variety of items, according to a criminal complaint.
Court documents say the wife had $80 missing from her purse, and $250 in cash had been taken from a bedroom drawer. Jewelry was also missing from jewelry boxes and the tops of the dresses, the couple told police.
When the victims and officers made their way to the couple’s basement, they discovered an opened, half-full beer bottle that had not been used by the homeowners. Police collected the beer bottle as evidence and took a DNA swab of the bottle.
Detectives were aware of another burglary in St. Peter that had occurred at 2:30 a.m. that morning. The complaint says Seth Theron Pierce, 23, of Eden Prairie, had been identified as the suspect in that burglary through license plate identification and a description of the suspect. The burglar at that home invasion had also left two opened bottles of beer at the scene.
In July 2023, investigators obtained a search warrant for Pierce’s DNA. Police say Pierce declined to give a statement about the burglaries.
The Minnesota Department of Criminal Apprehension returned their lab results on the DNA analysis of the beer bottles last month and found the beer bottles matched Pierce’s DNA profile.
The criminal complaint says the victims reported a total of $350 in cash and coins, $8,150 worth of jewelry, and a screwdriver set worth $175 that had been stolen.
Pierce is facing felony counts of first and second-degree burglary, possession of burglary or theft tools, and theft in Nicollet County Court.
He’s due in court for his first appearance on May 21.
