Reno Police revealed today that a second pair of underwear, this one containing DNA from three people, was found at the scene with the body of 19-year-old Briana Denison.

This second pair of underwear was found intertwined with another pair described by police several weeks ago as black cotton with caricatures of the Pink Panther cartoon character. Laboratory analysis has shown that the three sets of DNA on the second set of underwear belong to Denison, the murder suspect and the owner of the underwear, who is one of the female occupants of the house where Denison was abducted on Jan. 20. The first pair of underwear, with the Pink Panther characters, contains DNA from an unknown male and an unknown female.

Reno Police Detective Commander Leigha Struffert said Thursday morning that the existence of this second pair of underwear was not revealed earlier because police wanted to investigate it more before making the information public. Struffert said police did not want to speculate how he got ahold of the second pair, but that all four of the occupants of the house from where Denison was last seen — two males and two females — have been ruled out as suspects.

“This suspect left us his DNA so we are going to catch him,” Struffert said.

Police have linked DNA evidence from the scene of Denison’s abduction to evidence collected from sexual assaults that occurred on Dec. 16 and Nov. 13, 2007. The victim of the Dec. 16 assault was also the victim of an attempted burglary the day before Denison was abducted, according to Reno police.

Reno police have established a Web page containing information and updates about the Denison investigation. The page can be found by going to www.cityofreno.com and following the Brianna Denison link under the “In The News” heading.

Reno police are also still asking the public to report information that may be pertinent or out of the ordinary by calling the 24-hour tip line at 745-3521, or the Secret Witness Program 322-4900.