Investigators reveal how they tracked down 1984 Minneapolis cold case murder suspect Matthew Russell Brown
MINNEAPOLIS – A former security counselor at the state sex offender program is behind bars, accused of a decades-old Minneapolis murder.
The break in the case came thanks to advances in DNA technology.
For years, Matthew Russell Brown worked security at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program in Moose Lake. He also ran a motel in nearby Cloquet. He is now in the Hennepin County Jail, charged with the murder of Robert Miller at a south Minneapolis apartment building in 1984.
RELATED: DNA left on disposable cup led Minneapolis police to 1984 cold case murder suspect Matthew Brown
"It shows that we have not forgotten about victims, and this is not the only cold case that we are working on," said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara.
Police got help from the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's crime lab. The DNA evidence in this case took some time to put together. In 2018, investigators used blood from a door handle at the original scene to create a DNA profile.
Genealogical research identified a likely suspect, and in March of this year, investigators retrieved the suspect's discarded cup and made a DNA match.
"When we first did DNA testing here at the BCA, you needed blood the size of a quarter," said BCA Superintendant Drew Evans. "But now it's certainly anything from someone who discarded a hat, a glove. It could be a cigarette butt at a scene, a pop can, all types of different things that we're able to swab that. And from very little transfer handling, we're able to get DNA results."
But for all the scientific advances, in the end this case also took a detective's persistence to get the right discarded item for DNA.
"If he has to sit outside waiting for somebody for an hour or 12 hours, it doesn't matter," said Minneapolis Police Lt. Richard Zimmerman. "They're determined to get the evidence."
Brown made his first court appearance Monday morning. He is being held in the Hennepin County Jail on $1 million bail.