A Knoxville man was arrested Monday following a burglary that occurred in March. According to court documents on March 17th law enforcement officers responded to a report of a burglary in the 200 block of W. Madison Street in Knoxville. When officers arrived they found a back window had been shattered and items had been stolen from the residence including prescription medication, a trail cam, ammunition and a UTV mounted spreader. Officers were shown a video clip from a motion activated security camera that showed a single suspect crawling through the shattered window.

Officers were able to locate a used cigarette butt inside the home near the shattered window. The victim told officers he did not smoke and his family was not allowed to smoke in the home. Officers sent the cigarette butt to the Iowa DCI lab for DNA analysis. Officers were informed the DNA contained in the cigarette butt matched a DNA sample of 45-year-old Matthew Alcorn of Knoxville. The DCI lab report stated that the probability of the DNA contained on the cigarette matching another individual other than Matthew Alcorn had a probability of less than 1 in 3.3 nonillion (nonillion, a number equal to 1 followed by 30 zeros). Alcorn was arrested and charged with burglary 3rd degree, a class D felony as well as theft 4th degree, a serious misdemeanor.