13 Years After Crime, Suspect Back In Michigan Courts

WATERFORD (WWJ) - A former Pontiac area man, targeted in a 1998 home invasion and rape in Waterford, is back in Michigan to face those charges.

WWJ Newsradio 950's Pat Sweeting reports that the suspect was jailed in Florida shortly after he moved to that state.

The Oakland County prosecutor's office has charged 46-year-old Robert Ernest Tackett with the July 1998 rape at knifepoint of a 25-year-old Waterford  woman whose name is being withheld.  Waterford Police Chief Dan McCaw explains how investigators found Tackett in Florida.

"In late 2009 the Waterford Police Department received information that a possible suspect may have been
located  based on a DNA hit," said McCaw.  "We dispatched investigators to that facility to interview the suspect and obtained a DNA sample under a court order."

Testing by the Michigan State Police crime lab showed that Tackett's DNA was a match. Tackett is being charged with two counts of rape and one count of home invasion.