SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake County prosecutors have filed a capital murder charge against an Idaho prison inmate and say DNA evidence has linked him to the 1998 stabbing death of a 10-year-old Utah girl.
Anna Palmer's mother found her unconscious and bleeding on the front porch of her family home Sept. 10, 1998.
On Monday, prosecutors charged Matthew John Breck with aggravated murder, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and intentionally inflicting serious physical harm on a child in connection with the death.
If convicted of murder, Breck could face the death penalty.
Prosecutors say DNA obtained from Palmer's fingernails matched a DNA profile of Breck in an FBI database.
Breck is in an Idaho prison after being convicted in 2001 on charges of sodomy/lewdness of a minor child under 16.
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