DNA leads to arrest of transient in 1999 Ft. Lauderdale murder

MIAMI - Police arrested a homeless man in the 1999 murder and rape of a Fort Lauderdale woman after DNA linked him to the crime. <br> <br> Jay Taylor, who was in custody at the Miami-Dade County jail for the attempted rape of a young Miami Beach woman, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder. <br> <br> Sheila Griffin, 44, was raped, strangled and left near a tree in a vacant lot in downtown Fort Lauderdale three years ago. Griffin was a former nurse and had a 2-year-old son. <br> <br> DNA evidence also linked Taylor to the January 2001 rape and robbery of an 88-year-old tourist in Orlando, police said. The victim told police a man offered to help carry her luggage from a taxi, then choked and attacked her. <br> <br> ``Definitely, if you look at his record, he&#39;s a serial rapist,&#39;&#39; said Fort Lauderdale Detective John Curcio. ``We&#39;re going to work with (the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) to help in tracking his movements to see if there are any other victims out there.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Taylor, who is awaiting trial on attempted sexual assault, armed burglary and assault charges from June 2001 in Miami-Dade County, was convicted of murder in Georgia in the 1960s and has prior arrests in San Diego and Philadelphia.