DRYDEN, N.Y. - DNA evidence has linked a Vermont woman to the armed robbery of a Chinese restaurant in the village of Dryden that occurred nearly three years ago.
On Jan. 18, 2015, at about 1:08 p.m., the Dryden Police Department responded to the Golden Chinese Restaurant in the village for a report of an armed robbery. The business owner told police that a woman, masked by a red scarf, entered the restaurant and told employees she had a gun.
Instead of drawing a firearm, however, the woman displayed a knife and attempted to open the cash register. She was chased out of the store by the owner, but not before threatening him again with the knife, police said at the time.
The woman left behind her scarf and jacket, which officers collected as evidence.
Video surveillance of the incident would provide investigators with additional clues, but no suspects were identified. The woman's clothing was sent to the New York State Police Lab in Albany, where a DNA profile was obtained from the clothing; however, there were no hits in the National DNA index system.
In March, a state administrator for the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) told Dryden police that there was a positive DNA match to a woman named Alayna Emery. The investigation was re-opened, and a criminal history search of Emery revealed she had recently been arrested in Vermont.
Dryden police worked with the Vermont Probation Department and met with Emery in the city of Barre, Vt., for a formal interview, where she gave a full written and recorded confession to the crime. Emery reportedly agreed to turn herself in to police "at a future time to be determined," the Dryden Police Department said in a press release.
On Oct. 2, Emery turned herself in to the Dryden Police Department and was charged with attempted robbery in the second degree, a Class E felony. She was arraigned in Dryden Town Court and taken to the Tompkins County Jail.
