A man identified using genealogy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Matthew Mickens-Murrey in 2017.
Police asked to check on Mickens-Murrey’s welfare when no one could reach him for a few days after a Black gay pride weekend in D.C.
They found him stabbed to death in his apartment in the 5400 block of Newton Street in the unincorporated area of Hyattsville, Maryland.
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Brandon Biagas was developed as a suspect when the ancestry search on DNA discovered in the victim's apartment was connected to a bloody knife found in Biagas' truck.
According to charging documents, the night of the murder, Biagas went to a Charles County hospital saying he was attacked and cut with a knife. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office found conflicts in his story and also found a knife and stained shoes in his car that they held on to.
Per the plea agreement, Biagas would get no more than 17 years in prison.
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This was the first case Prince George's County police and the state's attorney's office closed using forensic genetic genealogy. The state's attorney now has $470,000 in grant money that the office plans to use to close more cases this way.
