Authorities in California said Wednesday that a 43-year-old murder case was solved with the help of a rape kit from 1994.
The El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office in California said that Harold Carpenter, who was 63 at the time, is thought to have killed Patricia Carnahan in 1979.
Carpenter was found after a rape kit from an alleged sexual assault in 1994 in Spokane, Washington, was recently tested and his DNA was found to match evidence from Carnahan’s body, the district attorney’s office said.
On September 28, 1979, her body was found in a Lake Tahoe campground. The DA’s office says that her name wasn’t found out until 2015, when the case was looked at again.
The DA’s office says that her body was dug up and DNA was found on a necklace she wore that matched hers.
The prosecutor’s office said that the Spokane rape kit was tested as part of a nationwide effort to test kits that hadn’t been tested yet. The office said that the sexual assault could not be proven at the time it happened, and the victim has since died.
Here is the post from twitter by maxvaldes A rape kit from a 1994 alleged crime led to an arrest in a 43–year–old killing in California, authorities say.
NBCNews: A rape kit from a 1994 alleged crime led to an arrest in a 43-year-old killing in California, authorities say. https://t.co/4xb2ngYW1M
— The Believer ™ (@maxvaldes) March 2, 2023
Spokane police said that Carpenter was arrested and booked in 1994 on a charge of second-degree rape, but the case was put on hold and charges were never filed. It said that the test kit was sent in last year.
Police in downtown Spokane said that Carpenter was caught at his apartment on Monday.
Online jail records show that he is being held in Spokane County because he is on the run. He is being charged with murder in California, says the DA’s office. It wasn’t clear right away on Wednesday night if Carpenter had a lawyer who could speak for him.
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