Morgan City man booked in 1994 kidnapping, rape of Iberville woman

PLAQUEMINE - A Morgan City man suspected of kidnapping and raping a 41-year-old woman in 1994 was arrested and booked into the Iberville Parish Jail after his DNA matched evidence from the crime, Sheriff Brett Stassi said Nov 26. .

Bernie Metrejean, 39, 1932 Duhon St., Morgan City, was linked to the nearly 20-year-old crime after he was arrested in St. Mary Parish on drug charges, Stassi said.

"Because it was a felony arrest they swabbed him for DNA which was sent to the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab," he said. "The DNA sample matched DNA evidence in one of our old rape cases."

Stassi said investigators believe Metrejean, who was 19 at the time of the 1994 incident, abducted and raped a Iberville Parish woman, who is now 60 years old, on Nov. 15, 1994 while she was walking up the street to a neighborhood store.

Metrejean was working for a trucking company at the time that made deliveries in Iberville Parish, Stassi said.

"He had opportunity in 1994," Stassi said. "We think it was a random thing."

Metrejean was booked into the Iberville Parish Jail on Nov. 25 for aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping.