DNA last-minute crime solver

BY CHRISTINE KRALY

DYER | A headscarf left at the scene of an armed robbery may have helped solved the case that, given another couple of months, could have forever remained a mystery.

Charges were presented Monday to the Lake County prosecutor's office against Jason Armstrong, 24, of Harvey, and John Coleman, 26, of Ford Heights, relating to the 2001 robbery of a Dyer Burger King. The men face two counts of felony confinement, and one count each of felony robbery and felony battery, according to Dyer Detective Ken Croft.

Police say on April 8, 2001, two men went into the Burger King at 996 Joliet St., told the manager they had a weapon and demanded he open the safe. During the robbery, Armstrong shoved a shotgun into a restaurant employee's face, Croft said.

A bandana left at the restaurant was sent to the Indiana State Police lab for DNA analysis.

On Dec. 12, Dyer police received an analysis certificate from Indiana State Police stating DNA from the bandana matched that of Armstrong, in prison at Danville Correctional Facility for the 2002 robbery of a Tinley Park restaurant, Croft said.

Dyer detectives then interviewed Armstrong at Danville, who gave an oral confession of the robbery and implicated Coleman. Coleman later confessed to the crime in an interview with Dyer police at the Ford Heights Police Department.

The case had remained open with no suspects since April 2001. Croft said the crime has a five-year statute of limitations, and this coming April, police would have closed the case.

"It came in right underneath the wire," Croft said.

The arrest marks the first the Dyer police have been able to make based on DNA evidence, Croft said. He credits the arrest in part to police databases recently linking to others within the state and to the National DNA database.

"There will be a lot more crimes solved," he said.