Overview
- BSO said Wisler Marcellus, 63, was booked on Oct. 28 and remains in the Broward Main Jail on charges of sexual battery with a weapon and armed burglary.
- Detectives obtained a DNA swab under warrant when Marcellus returned from Haiti to Miami International Airport on Oct. 20, and BSO's lab matched it to semen collected in 2009.
- The renewed 2025 review, supported by cold-case funding, used FDLE's database to identify a close relative—Marcellus's son—guiding a genealogical family-tree search.
- Investigators reported records hurdles, including the father's name missing from the son's birth certificate, before ultimately identifying Marcellus.
- The attack occurred about 3:30 a.m. on June 19, 2009, when a masked intruder held a 36-year-old mother at gunpoint, sexually assaulted her, and fled with her purse as her two children slept.