A 23-year-old Eden Prairie man, Seth Theron Pierce, faces six felony charges – including five related to burglary and one for felony theft – after forensic evidence linked him to a burglary in St. Peter last year. This incident follows a pattern similar to two other cases.
According to a Nicollet County criminal complaint filed on April 19, DNA found on beer bottles at two burglarized homes matched Pierce’s DNA.
On the morning of June 16, 2023, residents of one home reported discovering a cut in their kitchen window screen and valuables missing, including $8,100 worth of jewelry and $350 in cash. Although the house was locked, the windows had been left open overnight.
One of the homeowners found an opened, half-full beer bottle in a basement bedroom and confirmed not having opened or drunk from it, prompting police to conduct a DNA swab.
In July 2023, police obtained and executed a search warrant for Pierce’s DNA. At the time, Pierce refused to provide a statement. The DNA swabs from the beer bottles and Pierce’s sample were subsequently sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for analysis.
Officers recalled another burglary that occurred in St. Peter during the early morning hours of the same day, where Pierce was identified as the suspect through a license plate number and a physical description provided by the victims. Two opened beer bottles were also left at this scene.
On March 25, 2024, police received the lab results from the DNA analysis, indicating that the DNA from the beer bottle found in the basement matched Pierce’s DNA profile. The criminal complaint notes the results indicated that “(t)he probability of observing (this) DNA profile is greater than 100 billion times more likely if (defendant) is the source than if an unknown, unrelated individual is the source.”
Pierce’s first court appearance for these charges is scheduled for May 21. He also has plea hearings on May 28 related to the June 16 burglary and another incident that occurred in North Mankato on June 14, 2023. In each case, the suspect reportedly consumed beer found at the scenes of the burglaries. Notably, Pierce’s residency was listed as Burnsville in the criminal complaints filed last summer for these two other burglaries.
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