DNA connects police to hit-and-run driver

GLEN BURNIE, Md. - Police say DNA helped connect them to their suspect in a July hit-and-run in Glen Burnie.

The hit-and-run happened on July 14 just after 7:30 a.m. A bicyclist, later identified as 41-year-old Marco Garcia, was riding on northbound Crain Highway near Georgia Avenue when a gray car hit him and then kept on going, police say.

Garcia was hospitalized at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Four days later police were called to the Walmart on George Clauss Boulevard to check on a car in the parking lot. The car matched the description of the car in the hit-and-run crash. There was obvious damage to the front.

Police found the car's owner, 57-year-old John Harrison Correlli of Baltimore, and towed the vehicle to police headquarters where it was analyzed for DNA. The DNA was then compared to Garcia's DNA.

On December 29, the results of the DNA test confirmed the two were a match.

On January 18 Correlli was charged with several traffic violations.