202 - Update - The Murder of Irina Yarmolenko
Trace Evidence
Steven Pacheco
4.7 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2022
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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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Transcript
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| 0:39.2 | In episode 52, we featured the case of 20-year-old Irina Yarmalenko. |
| 0:44.9 | On Monday, May 5, 2008, Irina, a student at UNC Charlotte, was found dead on the shores of the Kataba River. |
| 0:53.5 | The railing cameras in the area aided investigators in constructing a timeline of events, however, |
| 0:59.0 | when and why she decided to drive down to the river remains a mystery no one has ever solved. |
| 1:04.6 | Ultimately, it was determined that Irina had died as a result of exphyxiation secondary to ligature strangulation. |
| 1:11.7 | At the scene, detectives found a 20-year-old herself partially went from the river, |
| 1:16.6 | lying dead with three ligatures tightly secured around her neck. |
| 1:20.8 | In the battle, they began looking for any potential witnesses. |
| 1:24.8 | They came upon Mark Carver, a local man who was fishing several hundred yards away. |
| 1:30.1 | Suspicious of Carver's claim that he'd heard nothing when he'd been so close to the crime, |
| 1:34.9 | investigators zeroed in on him, as well as his cousin Neil Casada, who had been fishing with Carver earlier in the day. |
| 1:42.3 | They didn't have a lot of evidence, and the vast majority of what they did have came down to touch DNA, |
... |
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