this just posted in the RGJ.com
Someone in the community left a tip with Secret Witness saying that James Michael Biela may have been involved in the murder of Brianna Denison, according to the affidavit for his arrest warrant.
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Following that tip, Reno police Detective Adam Wygnanski met with Biela, but he declined to give a DNA sample. He also said that his girlfriend, Carleen Harmon, could provide an alibi for him during the time of Denison’s disappearance, the affidavit said.
Harmon was interviewed and said she had a son with Biela, but said “she could not account for his whereabouts on the early morning hours of either Dec. 16, 2007 or Jan. 20, 2008,” the affidavit said.
She also said she and Biela has “a tumultuous romantic relationship” and it was common for him to leave for days.
She said he moved to Washington between March and September for work, and sold his Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck before he left.
While visiting him there, she said she found a “petite sized women’s thong style underwear/panties inside his vehicle,” the affidavit said. She said she confronted him, and he told them he had stolen them from a laundromat in Washinton.
Harmon provided a DNA reference sample from her 4-year-old son to be compared with DNA evidence found during the investigation.
The Washoe County Crime Lab matched the sample with Biela.