JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The murder of Tina Heins has been solved, nearly two decades after her brother-in-law was exonerated in the crime, State Attorney Melissa Nelson announced Thursday.
A close friend of Heins’ Navy sailor husband is now charged with the murder of the 20-year-old, who was four months pregnant when she was stabbed 27 times in her Mayport apartment in 1994.
Heins’ husband, Jeremy, was on duty at Mayport Naval Station when his wife was killed, but Jeremy’s brother, Chad Heins, told police he was sleeping on the living room couch at the time.
WATCH: Press play below to watch the entire cold case announcement
Nelson said initially, all the evidence pointed toward Chad Heins being the killer. He was 19 years old at the time.
Chad Heins was convicted of Tina’s murder and served nearly 14 years in prison before DNA evidence exonerated him and he was released in 2007.
Nelson said since Chad Heins’ exoneration, investigators had consistently submitted that DNA evidence from the crime, which was found under Tina’s nails and on her sheets, into the national database, with no matches.
Then, after the arrest of the Golden State Killer using genetic genealogy, Nelson and her team contacted a Texas lab that was able to connect the DNA from Tina’s murder to a suspect, using that same advanced technology.
Nelson said that suspect is Michael Ziegler, who served with Tina’s husband in the Navy and attended their courthouse wedding as a close friend.
This is a developing story and will continue to be updated.