SKOWHEGAN — A court document reveals that it was a discarded cigarette that led to the arrest of a Maine man in a 31-year-old murder case.
Jay Mercier was arrested in September and charged with murder in the July 1980 death of 20-year-old Rita St. Peter, whose beaten body was found along the side of a road in Anson.
According to an affidavit filed by state police detective Bryant Jacques, DNA recovered from the cigarette butt matched DNA from the victim’s body.
Jacques wrote in the affidavit that he was interviewing Mercier about the case last year when Mercier finished a cigarette and tossed it in the street. The detective later retrieved the butt and took it to a crime lab for analysis.
A judge has denied bail for Mercier.
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