DNA testing of a baseball cap believed to have been worn by the man who robbed the Portage branch of Chase Bank in May has led to the arrest of a suspect in Kentucky, Portage Police said.

According to police, on May 14 a male subject entered the bank wearing a white baseball cap with the Purdue emblem on the front. Surveillance tape then shows him fleeing the scene on foot into a wooded area behind an apartment complex to the east of the bank. Officers were unable to locate the suspect but they did find a white baseball cap with the Purdue emblem, police said.

That cap was sent for DNA testing and on July 3 the PPD was notified that a search of the national DNA database indicated that a possible contributor to the DNA profile was Jarrett McGill, police said. “Based on photographs of McGill and information developed during the investigation, officers believed that McGill was the same person who robbed the Chase Bank. A photo line-up was shown to a witness from the bank robbery and McGill was picked out of the line-up.”

An arrest warrant charging McGill with robbery was then issued.

Investigators were able to trace McGill to a relative in Gary, who advised that McGill had re-located to Kentucky, police said. The warrant information was subsequently forwarded to the U.S. Marshal’s Service, McGill was located in Kentucky on July 24, and on Aug. 11 he was transported to the Porter County Jail, where he is currently in custody.

Posted 9/6/2012