The new evidence has given a significant boost to the intensive, three-month-old investigation because it may connect the man to [Kevin Shifflett] for the first time. Sources theorize that the man had the check with him when Kevin was killed and that the boy's blood soaked onto the check. DNA evidence already has revealed that the Alexandria man, who lived just a few blocks from where Kevin was playing when he was killed, was in the getaway vehicle, but it doesn't tell police when he was in the cab or tie him to the crime scene.

Detectives have learned that the man stayed at the Homewood Suites Hotel in Baileys Crossroads two nights before the slaying and left behind a handwritten note with racial overtones and a reference in badly misspelled language to killing "them racist white kids." The man, who is black, was convicted six years ago of an attack with a hammer that has similarities to Kevin's case: It was unprovoked, the victim was a stranger, and the man was overheard making racial comments.

Two days before Kevin was slain, the man plunked down $350 in cash for two nights in a luxury suite with a Jacuzzi at the Homewood. Early on April 17, the man left a burning cigarette on his bedsheets while in the shower, igniting a fire and setting off the hotel's sprinkler system and alarm, a hotel official said. When firefighters arrived, the man refused to leave and was arrested on charges of refusing to evacuate and cocaine possession.