DNA leads to charges in decade-old teen rape case

By Larry Hartstein

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Clayton County police say DNA helped solve an old rape case involving a 13-year-old girl.

In 1999, the girl said she was raped by a man who entered her home wearing a black stocking over his head. There were no leads in the case for years.

Then the GBI matched a Georgia inmate's DNA with evidence collected at the rape scene, police said. Now the inmate, Michael Bernard Heath, 35, is charged with aggravated child molestation, sodomy, sexual battery, burglary and false imprisonment.

Heath, who was 26 at the time of the rape, is in Valdosta State Prison on unrelated charges, police said.

Det. Jerald Parks secured the warrants against Heath last week.