In May of 2008, the body of twenty year old Irina Yarmolenko was discovered along the shore of the Catawba River, in North Carolina. Initially, investigators were baffled as they found Irina with three ligatures tied around her neck. Hoping to locate witnesses in the area who had seen or heard something, detectives began canvassing.
They quickly came upon thirty-nine year old Mark Carver, fishing just up the river. He, along with his cousin, Neal Cassada, would become the prime suspects despite absolutely no evidence linking them to the crime. Cassada would pass away as the result of heart attack before going to trial, Carver would ultimately be found guilty and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Several years later in 2019, Carver's lawyer successfully argued to have his conviction thrown out and a new trial ordered. While the District Attorney promised to charge Carver again, his lawyer felt there wasn't even enough evidence to have charged him the first time.
***Update*** -- In August of 2022, fourteen years after Irina Yarmolenko was murdered, the Gaston County District Attorney's Office officially dropped all charges against Mark Carver noting that the Touch DNA upon which he had originally been arrested did not meet the modern standard necessary to link him to the crime. In today's episode we'll dig into all of the news regarding this update and what it means for the case in the future.
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