Patricia Carnahan was a woman from Virginia who disappeared in 1979 while on a road trip to California and was later found murdered in a campground at Sugar Pine Point State Park in Lake Tahoe.
She was identified in 2015 and her murderer was apprehended in 2023, over four decades later.
Background[]
Carnahan disappeared while on a solo road trip around California. Her van was found abandoned in Venice, California and she was reported missing in October 1979. Her body was found in a picnic area in Lake Tahoe in September 1979. She had been beaten and strangled to death.
Case[]
In 2015, the case was reopened by the El Dorado County cold case homicide unit. The then unidentified body was exhumed and jewelry found on the victim was photographed and made public. Carnahan's family recognized the jewelry, specifically a deer pendant that Carnahan wore. Family members submitted DNA which confirmed that Patricia was indeed the El Dorado County Jane Doe.
In 2023, Washington State Police began working through their untested rape kits. A 1994 rape of a homeless woman in Spokane, Washington matched the DNA found at the Carnahan murder. The rape in question had been deemed 'unprovable' at the time as Carpenter claimed he'd had consensual sex with the victim. He would have been 19 at the time of Carnahan's murder. Carpenter had periodically been homeless over his life and had many criminal charges. He had been arrested for domestic battery and accused of another rape in 2018.
Gallery[]
Sources[]
- SFGATE
- CBS News
- Mercury News
- People
- Spokesman
- ABC 10
- Patricia Carnahan at the Doe Network (archived)
- JWeekly (archived)