DENVER -- A man who pleaded guilty to two car break-ins in Denver was caught in a unique way -- through his brother's DNA.

Police investigating a vehicle break-in in February found blood at the scene. The DNA profile was submitted to Denver's local DNA database, but there was no exact match.

However, the sample was also run through a familial search software program, specially designed by the Denver' District Attorney's Office, and the Denver Police Crime Lab, the district attorney's office said. The computer program found that the blood was a close match to someone in the system -- likely a close relative or a sibling.

Police investigated, interviewing witnesses and looking through public records, to determine which male relative of the person in the database may have committed the car break-in.

Once a suspect was identified as the man's brother, Luis Jaimes-Tinajero, police received a court order for his DNA sample. His DNA was found to be a perfect match to the original car break-in and also linked to a second car break-in.

Jaimes-Tinajero pleaded guilty on Sept. 10 to criminal trespass and was sentenced to two years probation.

The use of familial DNA match searching has been used successfully in Great Britain for some time but this is one of the first successful cases in the United States, said district attorney spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough.