Police believe they solved a theft from over a decade ago with the arrest of a Jersey City man last Friday.
According to police, a homeowner on Liberty Drive reported cash and jewelry was stolen from their home sometime over a weekend in August, 2002.
Sgt. Gene Rickle, who was a patrolman and evidence technician at the time, processed the crime scene and developed several latent fingerprints off of items found in one of the bedrooms.
Those prints were sent to the New Jersey State Police for analysis, police said.
In July of this year, Detective Nathan Labuda was notified that the prints from 2002 were matched to a man named John Hyson, 32, of Jersey City.
Detective Labuda spoke to the residents of the Liberty Drive home and they recalled having an event that weekend and Mr. Hyson visiting the home at that time.
The stolen items including three gold and diamond necklaces, a gold and diamond ring, and one gold and black ring were all reportedly stolen from a second floor bedroom.
The items were valued at more than $5,500, police said.
Mr. Hyson was arrested early Friday morning in Camden County following a motor vehicle stop,
Police said.
He is currently lodged at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick on $5,000 bail. Police said.
“The determination of our officers and detectives are not limited by any timeframe,” Chief of Police Raymond Hayducka said. “This is a case where diligent crime scene processing created a lead that years later lead to an arrest.”
