One Arrested In Grace Burglary
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
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Blake Andrew Truman, 24, of 1750 Raleigh Ave., Kendallville, faces charges of burglary and theft.
In a press release, the Winona Lake Police Department presented the following timeline for the case.
On Aug. 5, 2006, The Winona Lake Police Department and Grace College Campus Safety investigated a break–in at the Alpha Building in which two safes containing cash were removed from an office.
On Sept. 19, 2006, Whitley County Sheriff’s Department officers discovered two safes in an abandoned house at 180 CR 300W, Columbia City. Other items found in the house indicated that the safes came from Grace College. These items along with the safes were later processed by the Indiana State Police and blood was discovered on one of the safes.
A blood smear was collected and sent to the ISP lab.
It took until Sept. 14, 2007, before a certificate of analysis was sent to the Winona Lake Police Department stating there was DNA found of an unknown male, but no matches were found in their database.
It wasn’t until Nov. 16, 2010, that Winona Lake P.D. was contacted by the ISP lab with a match for the sample.
The match came from the Indiana Department of Corrections.
On Dec. 14, 2010, Truman was identified as the suspect. Truman had been sentenced in Noble County on an unrelated charge and his DNA had been collected and placed in the DNA database in September.
Truman had been an employee of Grace College and had worked in the Alpha Building until February 2006.
A search warrant was obtained for a DNA sample from Truman and that was collected on Dec. 31,
On March 2, 2011, the ISP Lab confirmed again that the DNA collected from the search warrant and the DNA collected for the safe were a match. Truman was subsequently arrested and booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on April 5 and charged with burglary and theft.
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Blake Andrew Truman, 24, of 1750 Raleigh Ave., Kendallville, faces charges of burglary and theft.
In a press release, the Winona Lake Police Department presented the following timeline for the case.
On Aug. 5, 2006, The Winona Lake Police Department and Grace College Campus Safety investigated a break–in at the Alpha Building in which two safes containing cash were removed from an office.
On Sept. 19, 2006, Whitley County Sheriff’s Department officers discovered two safes in an abandoned house at 180 CR 300W, Columbia City. Other items found in the house indicated that the safes came from Grace College. These items along with the safes were later processed by the Indiana State Police and blood was discovered on one of the safes.
A blood smear was collected and sent to the ISP lab.
It took until Sept. 14, 2007, before a certificate of analysis was sent to the Winona Lake Police Department stating there was DNA found of an unknown male, but no matches were found in their database.
It wasn’t until Nov. 16, 2010, that Winona Lake P.D. was contacted by the ISP lab with a match for the sample.
The match came from the Indiana Department of Corrections.
On Dec. 14, 2010, Truman was identified as the suspect. Truman had been sentenced in Noble County on an unrelated charge and his DNA had been collected and placed in the DNA database in September.
Truman had been an employee of Grace College and had worked in the Alpha Building until February 2006.
A search warrant was obtained for a DNA sample from Truman and that was collected on Dec. 31,
On March 2, 2011, the ISP Lab confirmed again that the DNA collected from the search warrant and the DNA collected for the safe were a match. Truman was subsequently arrested and booked into the Kosciusko County Jail on April 5 and charged with burglary and theft.
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