{"id":6835,"date":"2025-10-16T16:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/6835\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:50:09","slug":"covington-man-charged-in-1994-murder-of-pregnant-florida-woman-after-dna-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/6835\/","title":{"rendered":"Covington man charged in 1994 murder of pregnant Florida woman after DNA breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Covington man has been charged in a nearly 30-year-old cold case in Jacksonville, Florida.<\/p>\n

Channel 2\u2019s sister station Action News Jax<\/a> reports that Michael Shane Ziegler faces murder and sexual battery charges in the death of Tina Livernash Heins.<\/p>\n

Police found Heins, who was 15 weeks pregnant, stabbed to death<\/a> in her Atlantic Beach apartment on April 17, 1994. Heins lived her husband, Jeremy, and brother-in-law, Chad Heins.<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD:\u00a0Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Jeremy Heins was working overnight at the Naval Station Mayport when his wife was killed. Her brother-in-law, who was believed to be the only other person in the apartment, said he slept through the attack.<\/p>\n

Chad Heins was later convicted in Tina\u2019s death in 1996 and sentenced to prison. But investigators later found new DNA evidence in 2007 that pointed to someone else being in the apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cA DNA profile of an unknown man emerged. DNA from under Tina\u2019s nails, from hairs collected from her body, and from a semen stain on her sheets, were from a man who was not her husband and not her brother in law Chad,\u201d State Attorney Melissa Nelson said.<\/p>\n

TRENDING STORIES:<\/p>\n

Investigators sent the DNA to Othram Labs in Texas, which has helped solve other cold cases including ones in Georgia.<\/p>\n

Nelson said the lab testing and search led back to Ziegler, a close friend of the Heins who was at their wedding months before Tina\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The US Marshals, Georgia State Patrol, the Newton County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Clayton County Sheriff\u2019s Office performed a traffic stop in September and took him into custody.<\/p>\n

He is now being held at the Duval County Jail without bond. He entered a not guilty plea during a Tuesday court hearing. Ziegler\u2019s next court date is scheduled for Nov. 12.<\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Covington man has been charged in a nearly 30-year-old cold case in Jacksonville, Florida. Channel 2\u2019s sister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7343,344,3912,7340,7346,28,30,29,7341,7345,7344,7342,7339],"class_list":{"0":"post-6835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-15-weeks-pregnant","9":"tag-action-news-jax","10":"tag-atlantic-beach","11":"tag-chad-heins","12":"tag-dna-evidence","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-florida-headlines","15":"tag-florida-news","16":"tag-jeremy-heins","17":"tag-melissa-nelson","18":"tag-michael-shane-ziegler","19":"tag-naval-station-mayport","20":"tag-tina-livernash-heins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}