DNA links man to 1996 murder

Stacey Stowe:

For almost a decade after her body was found in a Florida river, there was no suspect in the death of Cherie Morrisette, 11. But the police here announced on Thursday that a New Britain man would be charged with her rape and murder after a DNA database linked him to the crime.

The man, Robert Shelton Mitchell, 43, was arraigned in Superior Court in New Britain on Thursday and charged as a fugitive from justice from Jacksonville, Fla. He was held on a $5 million bond, awaiting extradition to Florida, where he will be charged with first-degree murder and capital sexual battery, said Sgt. J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police.

When he was questioned by detectives from Florida on Wednesday, Mr. Mitchell confessed to raping Cherie, said Chuck Mulligan, a spokesman for the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office in Florida. Mr. Mulligan added that Mr. Mitchell was "being elusive and denying that he had anything to do with her murder."

On Dec. 2, 1996, Cherie left her apartment in Mandarin, on the south side of Jacksonville, after arguing with her sister, 12, over washing the dishes, Mr. Mulligan said. Six days later, her clothed body was found in the St. Johns River, 13 miles away. An autopsy found no signs of foul play. But forensics testing found evidence of semen, and detectives classified the case as a homicide, Mr. Mulligan said.

Over the years, Florida detectives tried to use DNA from Cherie's body to solve her murder but it was not until last year that a DNA profile was developed by the Biology Laboratory of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The profile was sent to the nationwide DNA bank, where it matched Mr. Mitchell's sample, officials said. Florida detectives received the results about a week and half ago and flew to Connecticut on Tuesday, Mr. Mulligan said.

Mr. Mitchell, in prison in 2003 after being convicted of sexual contact with a 13-year-old in Windsor Locks, had given a DNA sample to the Connecticut sex offenders' registry, Sergeant Vance said. The Connecticut Forensics Laboratory entered the sample into the nationwide data bank. At the time of the killing, Mr. Mitchell lived in Middleburg, Fla.

"He picked her up when she left her apartment," Mr. Mulligan said. "We believe it was a crime of opportunity. He wasn't stalking her."

Mr. Mitchell has been living in New Britain while on probation for the Windsor Locks crime. He surrendered on Wednesday, according to the New Britain Police Department.

"I asked why the match wasn't made sooner," Gov. M. Jodi Rell of Connecticut said. "But they had tested sooner with old DNA technology, and it wasn't until new DNA testing that they were able to get a match. The stars aligned at the right time."

Cherie's uncle Morris Foor, of Columbus, Ga., welcomed the news.

"I always knew that there was foul play involved," Mr. Foor said. "I'm very pleased because at the time they tried to pass it off as a little girl going for a walk and then going swimming."

Sex offender arrested in 1996 Fla. death