Nearly a year after a Cary mother and daughter were found knifed to death in their home, Sharkey County officials are trying to find matches to DNA found at the scene.

Officials are expecting a court order to subpoena the DNA of a Washington County jail inmate — the second “person of interest” in the September 2009 knifing death of Karitha Carroll, 31, and 3-year-old Jamaya Carroll, Sharkey County Sheriff Lindsey Adams Jr. said.

Karitha Carroll was found on a bedroom floor with multiple stab wounds to her chest on Sept. 23, and the toddler was found in the bed with multiple slash wounds to her neck.

Adams said DNA from a large number of family members, friends and other people has been tested against the evidence.

“We haven’t been able to match it to anyone,” he said.

The inmate, whose name the sheriff would not release, has been questioned by Sharkey officials and remains in jail on unrelated charges, Adams said. The sheriff said authorities gained interest in the man after discovering his red Ford Mustang matched the description of a car seen in the area at the time of the knifing.

“We spoke with his wife, and she led us to him,” said Adams. “She had heard he had dealings with a young lady in Cary, which was Karitha’s hometown.”

Washington County Sheriff Milton Gaston said the 40-year-old inmate has been in the jail since April this year on a $250,000 bond for an aggravated assault charge and no bond for two counts of capital murder.

Another potential suspect, 45-year-old Robert Lee King, was spotted in the Rolling Fork and Hollandale area about the time the Carrolls were found dead, Adams said. King, a U.S. Marshals fugitive since 2005, is wanted for a 2005 killing and attempted murder in Memphis.

He said he expects to talk with agents from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations again next week about the case.