The hair's DNA matched a sample in a federal database of known criminals, leading to an arrest and a conviction.
Mr. Ash was charged after the police matched a sample from the crime to DNA he had given after a burglary conviction, Mr. Hynes said.
He told of a homicide unsolved for more than a decade until last year when old evidence -- a scrap of toilet paper -- was tested for DNA and matched a sample from a convicted burglar.
Mr. Brown said the police arrested Mr. Murgo after a DNA sample taken from the woman matched a sample of Mr. Murgo's DNA that he provided earlier this year in connection with an unrelated case.
Genetic material taken from the clothing of one victim, Sherry Gordon, 12, matched a sample from the man, Melvin Johnson, that was in a national database, Deputy Police Chief Todd Walker said.
The man, Layshawn Mitchell, 38, of Brownsville, was arrested after DNA from the crime matched a sample he provided after a robbery conviction, said Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney.
A Far Rockaway man has been convicted of raping a woman in 1999 after a sample of his DNA, taken in an unrelated case, matched a sample from the crime, prosecutors said yesterday.
DNA from a blood stain found near the murder scene, believed to be from the killer, matched a sample taken from Mr. Jones before he was released on Aug. 10 from Ogdensburg State Prison, where he had been been serving time for a 1998 robbery.
