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The man accused of raping and murdering Marie Jamieson was forced to give up his DNA after he was convicted of a minor shoplifting charge.
The subsequent "hit" with a previously unknown male DNA profile found with Ms Jamieson's dead body led to the 51-year-old sickness beneficiary's arrest this week, seven years after she was found dumped behind a factory in West Auckland.
The Weekend Herald has learned the arrested man was convicted of theft - shoplifting to a value less than $500 - and then discharged in the Waitakere District Court in April.
The conviction would have allowed police to issue a compulsion order to take a DNA sample.
Under the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Act, police can issue an order following conviction for offences such as theft, rape and arson.
If a sample is not given by the day specified on the order, police can apply for a warrant to arrest, then detain for up to 24 hours, and eventually are allowed to use reasonable force.
It is understood the man complied with the order this month.
Announcing the arrest yesterday, Detective Inspector Steve Wood said the accused became a suspect for the first time in April and that "DNA evidence will form part of our case".
It has always been thought that two offenders may have been involved and further arrests haven't been ruled out.
Ms Jamieson, a 23-year-old hairdresser, was last seen heading home through the Gull service station on New North Rd in Kingsland on February 10, 2001. Her naked and decomposing body was found behind a factory in Ranui nine days later.
Associates of the arrested man have said that at the time of the killing he was living in the Tui Glen motor camp at Henderson - about 3km away from where the body was dumped.
He had recently returned to West Auckland and associates say he came to police attention late last year after being injured in a knife-fight with an ex-partner.
They say he moved out of his Glen Eden home after his DNA was taken and left their young daughter with relatives. Detectives have recently been questioning associates of the arrested man and DNA was taken from one this week.
The accused went to Northland, where detectives tracked him to Ahipara, a settlement 11km southwest of Kaitaia, and arrested him at 7.30pm on Thursday.
He appeared briefly in the Kaitaia District Court yesterday listed as a transient of no fixed abode.
No plea was sought, and no application for name secrecy was made.
But police agreed to name suppression until he appears in Waitakere District Court on Wednesday.
The man acknowledged two women as he was led away.
But outside the court, duty solicitor Junior Witehira told a Weekend Herald reporter - the only media representative present - that he was going to Kaitaia at the request of the accused's lawyer, Barry Hart, to get the view of the police there on an interim order suppressing the man's name.
- Tony Gee
