PORTLAND – The trial of a man accused of killing a Bridgton woman is set to get under way today, 13 years after her mysterious death.

Michael Hutchinson, 32, a self-employed mason from Bridgton, was arrested a year ago when his DNA matched evidence from the 1994 crime scene, police said.

Jury selection is expected to start this morning in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Crystal Perry was 30 years old when she was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death at her Route 93 home.

Hutchinson was 19 years old at that time. He was working at a construction site in the area.

Around the same time police were developing new leads in the slaying, Hutchinson was arrested on unrelated charges stemming from a 2003 assault on his wife. After he became a solid suspect, police got a court order to collect DNA samples from him. Those samples helped secure a grand jury indictment charging him with Perry’s death, police said.

Perry’s family had once posted a $10,000 reward for information about the case.

Perry was a single mother who worked in a shoe shop. She was killed in the early morning hours. Her daughter, Sarah, who was 12 years old at the time, had listened to the attack from her bedroom in the home.

Sarah Perry told police later that she heard her mother’s attacker going through dresser drawers, possibly searching for a knife. There was no sign of forced entry.

The girl had fled the home and ran barefoot to get help at a neighbor’s home. She knocked on several doors, finally finding somebody at an Italian restaurant.

Two types of DNA were found by state investigators; one at the scene, the other on Perry’s body, according to Robert Andrews, a Portland attorney representing Hutchinson.

Prosecutors believe they have an “absolute” match to Hutchinson from DNA found on the victim’s body, Andrews said. The other DNA evidence is less conclusive, he said.

A judge ordered public money for Andrews to pay an expert witness to review the reliability of analysis of DNA evidence gathered and tested by the state.