SALISBURY — Police said they have solved a decade-old burglary case after new DNA evidence was made available.

The case was an unsolved burglary by forcible entry case that took place on Feb. 4, 2013, in the 200 block of Morlan Park Road, according to police reports. Police responded to the home in reference to a breaking and entering that had already occurred. The victim said that she left to go to the gym, and when she came back home, both the front and back doors were open, according to a spokesperson for the Salisbury Police Department.

Officers reportedly cleared the home, and the victim found that multiple items had been removed from the home. During a search of the home, officers found blood from where the suspect had apparently cut himself, likely while breaking in, the spokesperson said.

That blood proved to be the key piece of evidence in solving the case over a decade later. Officers were able to extract viable DNA samples from the blood that they used to search databases for potential suspects, the spokesperson said.

In 2013, that database search came up empty, but on Saturday, police arrested 29-year-old Bryant Jamar Lane-Johnson and charged him with felony breaking and entering of a building and felony larceny after breaking and entering in relation to the 11-year-old case.

Officers take DNA samples when people are charged with certain crimes, including kidnapping, armed robbery, first- and second-degree murder and breaking out of a house while committing a burglary. That last one is likely what caused Lane-Johnson to give a sample, as he has been convicted of multiple counts of breaking and entering, with his most recent conviction being felony breaking and entering in 2018, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction database.

However, even after receiving a hit on the DNA sample that was taken from Lane-Johnson, simply comparing that to the blood sample is not enough. Officers are required to serve a search warrant on the suspect in order to get a secondary DNA sample and test that against both the sample taken at arrest and the DNA evidence in the case in order to be certain that the evidence is conclusive, the spokesperson said.

That requirement is what caused the delay, the spokesperson said, as officers were required to find and serve Lane-Johnson with the warrant before receiving new DNA evidence and charging him.