HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — An ex-con is back behind bars, thanks to tenacious police work and DNA technology.
Hendersonville police arrested Joshua Greer on Wednesday, Feb, 22 — 747 days after the crimes he is accused of committing on Feb. 6, 2021.
Video from that cold February night shows a figure trying to get into a back door.
According to HPD, the man attempting to break into the home is Joshua Greer.
Police say, during one of the three attempted home burglaries on this night, Greer tried to kick open a door with people sleeping inside.
“He was willing to break in a door to get into someone’s house which makes him dangerous,” said Sgt. Chris Gagnon.
According to detectives, Greer allegedly broke into multiple cars that same night,
stealing three handguns.
The whereabouts of those guns are still unknown.
While processing the crime scene, police found a window punch burglary tool left in one of the cars.
That evidence was sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime lab for analysis.
“Anytime anyone touches anything there is a small amount of trace evidence left on there,” Sgt. Gagnon said. “We can send those items off and they can do an analysis on it and they can pull trace evidence off and we can identify people.”
The TBI sent News 2 a chronology of the process:
Feb. 9, 2021 – Evidence in the referenced case was submitted to the crime laboratory in Nashville.
March 4, 2021 – An initial TBI report was issued to HPD, confirming DNA testing was performed with one profile submitted to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
March 26, 2021 – A second report was issued due to a CODIS hit for Joshua Greer. A DNA standard from Greer was requested for confirmation.
Dec. 15, 2022 – Greer’s DNA standard was submitted to TBI.
Jan. 18, 2023 – A third report was issued, confirming the submitted standard from Greer was consistent with the original DNA profile.
It took months to identify the ex-con and get a search warrant to verify that the DNA was an exact match with the suspect.
The TBI sent Hendersonville confirmation on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, 747 days after the crimes he is accused of committing, police charged Greer, now 26 years old, with three counts of attempted aggravated burglary.
“If you look at DNA evidence and the way we are able to connect it back to the crimes we are investigating, we rely heavily on a lot of technology-based investigations in this digital age, but the good old fashioned recovery of evidence to submit for analysis to the TBI still results in some amazing cases being made,” Sgt. Gagnon said.
Police could not charge Greer with the car burglaries or stolen guns because the statute of limitations on those crimes has expired.
According to the Tennessee Department of Correction’s website, when the Hendersonville crimes were committed in 2021, Greer was on probation with TDOC serving a four-year sentence for burglary.
However, a TDOC spokesperson told News 2 that Greer was never in custody in a TDOC prison. He was held in the Rutherford County Jail from May 24, 2019 to Aug. 27, 2020 and from May 18, 2022 to July 25, 2022.
“TDOC’S District 81 office started supervising Mr. Greer on 8/22/22, after he was reinstated back on probation,” said TDOC’s Sarah Gallagher in a statement to News 2. “Since then, he has passed all drug screens, reported as instructed, complied with home visits, and was employed full-time.”
