Prosecutor: DNA Links Man To Chelsea Bruck In Halloween Party Death
MONROE (WWJ/AP) - DNA taken after an arrest in an unrelated case led investigators to the man charged with killing a young woman who disappeared from a Halloween party in southeastern Michigan in 2014.
Monroe County prosecutor William Paul Nichols says investigators benefited from a 2015 law that allows police to take DNA from people who are arrested.
Without the law, Nichols tells The Monroe News that Daniel Clay would "still be out there walking around." Clay was charged Monday with second-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Chelsea Bruck.
State police told the sheriff's office that Clay's DNA matched DNA found on Bruck's Poison Ivy Halloween costume. He was arrested in May in the theft of tattoo equipment.
Bruck, last seen alive at a massive party at a rural property on Post Road in Frenchtown Township early in the morning of Oct. 26, 2014.
Her remains were discovered, several months later — on April 24, 2015 — in a wooded lot on Briar Hill Road in Ash Township.
Clay, who was arrested at his home last Friday, allegedly told his girlfriend following his arrest that he'd accidentally killed Bruck while choking her during rough, but consensual sex.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner concluded Bruck died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Clay remains held without bond.
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