Arrest made in 43-year-old South Lake Tahoe cold case rape, murder
The victim was not identified until 2015
The El Dorado County District Attorney’s office announced today an arrest has been made in a cold case rape and murder case that happened in September 1979. The arrest stems from when the suspect was tied to a rape case in Spokane, Wash.
Harold W. Carpenter, 63, was taken into custody in Spokane. Carpenter is accused of the September 1979 rape and murder of Patricia Carnahan.
Carpenter is in the Spokane County Jail on a fugitive charge, pending extradition to California on a murder warrant. A DNA match from a national database led to Carpenter.
Ms. Carnahan’s body was found at a South Lake Tahoe campground on September 28, 1979. The victim was beaten, strangled, and left for dead at a South Lake Tahoe campground.
At the time of the initial investigation, evidence was gathered, including a sexual assault kit which provided a DNA sample. No suspects were arrested, and her identity was unknown, and she was buried in a nondescript grave marked “Unidentified Female.”
In 2015, investigators were able to determine Carnahan’s identity after placing newspaper advertisements with articles found at the time of her death. The Spokane rape case that led to identifying Carpenter cannot proceed as the statute of limitations has expired, and the victim is now deceased.
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“This is the 13th case solved after the creation of the cold case task force,” El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said. “I’m proud to say our Cold Case Unit is one of the most successful of its kind in the United States. Sadly, Ms. Carnahan was buried in a potter’s field under a headstone of an ‘unidentified female.’ Because of the tireless dedication of our investigators, she was identified and returned to her family. Now due to multi-state collaboration by numerous agencies her killer will finally be held accountable.”
If anybody has any information on this case or Harold Carpenter, please contact the El Dorado Cold Case Task Force at (530) 621-4590 or email at coldcasetaskforce@edcda.us.
