DNA may have solved a 30-year-old murder mystery

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A man is back in Cobb County to face charges in a decades-old murder and sexual assault case.

Investigators say Ronald Kyles killed Sharon Brady and her daughter, Samantha, inside their Marietta apartment in September 1986.

Police used DNA technology to link Kyles to the crimes.

On Friday night, Channel 2’s Nefertiti Jaquez was in the courtroom as Kyles made his first appearance in front of a Cobb County judge.

Before the judge could read off the charges against him, Kyles quickly interrupted him mid-sentence and said, “I’m aware of the charges, your honor.”

Kyles is accused of sexually assaulting and killing a mother and her 13-year-old daughter.

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In 2015, preserved evidence samples from the case were sent to a private lab for forensic DNA testing, which linked Kyles to the crimes.

Between then and now, records show the suspect spent much of his life in jails and prisons.

Kyles was indicted when the DNA linked him to the crimes, but at the time he was serving a sentence in Pennsylvania.

Kyles was recently transferred after an agreement between the governors of Pennsylvania and Georgia.

At his hearing, he made one final request to the judge before he walked out of the room in cuffs and was led to the jail.

“I can’t get in touch with my family. Is there some way you can supply me with some envelopes?” Kyles asked the judge.

Cox Media Group