Hi there, everybody.

It's Deborah Roberts here, co anchor of 2020. I always like to know how a story turns out. And something tells me that you, as a 2020 podcast listener, feel the same way. Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault, where we are revisiting some of the most memorable stories from our archives. We're also going to give you an update on what's happened since the story first aired. Take a listen.

You coming up.

He was like, they're trying to pin this on me. I was like, dad, what are you talking about?

They're talking about this nature loving girl found murdered on a riverbank.

There's a car that's run off an embankment, and there's a body, land.

And the man found fishing nearby, sentenced to life for killing her. But did he do it?

She wasn't raped. She wasn't robbed. There were lots of things that just didn't make sense about this case.

Was it the evidence of a brutal strangling that put him away, knotted very.

Tightly around her neck?

Or was it a hell bent detective honing in on an easy target?

You said you didn't see a car, you never heard a car, you never touched a car. Lo and behold, guess whose DNA is inside a dead girl's car?

Now one woman's crusade to set him free.

People just lost track of who was doing what. We think Mark is innocent. And if Mark is innocent and the true perpetrator is still out on the.

Streets, she shows us the crime scene.

At the water's edge, fishing. There's no way I could even lean out and see that there's anything going on.

And videotapes the jury never saw. Even the judge now rethinking the case.

What do you think? After watching that videotape, it does make.

Me question whether or not Mark Carver did it.

Did they catch a murderer or make one?

If Mark Carver didn't kill IRI Yarmalenka, then who did?

I'm John Quinones. It seemed clear cut. A trial held, a conviction won, a sentence handed down, and a murder case finally settled. But for the families involved in the death of IRA Yarmelenko years later, haunting questions remain. Convicted murderer Mark Harver continues to insist he's innocent. And IRA's family is faced with the possibility that the man they believed killed her has a chance of being set free. At the heart of the matter, two questions was the DNA evidence reliable? And was Mark Carver the victim of overzealous investigators? In 2016, Elizabeth Vargas first visited both families. She also spoke with a woman determined to prove Mark Harver's innocence. Together, they reexamined the evidence that put him in prison and travel to the place where some say, the mystery of what happened remains unsolved.

Drive west from Charlote, North Carolina, on Interstate 85, and you'll cross the Cataba River wide and placid. It's a big draw for recreational boaters and sportsmen in close but separate locations on the river's wooded banks. Two people arrive here on the morning of May 5, 2008. They could not be more different. One is a 20 year old student from nearby UNC Charlotte. IRA Yarmelenko, a musician, a photographer, a poet. We as women, as children, an outdoorsy type who loves nature.

She really enjoyed the beauty of nature. She tried to find it everywhere.

Pavel is IRA's brother. Why do you think your sister drove to the river that day?

I think that she was looking for a pretty spot to take pictures at.

IRA is originally from the Ukraine. Immigrating here with her family when she was just seven years old.

She was like Energizer Bunny in terms of level of energy.

From all accounts, IRA Yarmalenka was a remarkable woman. I've talked to a lot of her friends who just really just thought she was wonderful and would do anything for you. Very creative young lady. She was idealistic. Like so many college students, believe strongly in social justice.

The other person on the river that day, 39 year old Mark Carver. He's from just down the road in nearby Gastonia, a dirt road which bears his family name, lined with modest dwellings which house his relatives.

Carver was a very simple person. His family lived out in the country, didn't have much education, could not read very well, cannot write very well.

Unlike Era, Mark has never been to college. In fact, he's never gone to high school. After years of working in the local cotton mills, he now spends his days here at this fishing hole on the catawba, where he casts away his troubles, often with this man, his cousin Neil Cassida. I sat down with Mark's sister in law, Robin Carver, and Neil's daughter, Amy Cassida.

Oh, they were together all the time when they were fishing and stuff.

Fishing was a big thing.

My dad loved fishing. I can say every memory I had from my childhood, it involves fishing.

What happened on that river that bright May Day is as perplexing as it was violent. But this much we can tell you for sure. Today, IRA Yarmelenko is in a North Carolina cemetery, and Mark Carver is in this North Carolina prison, serving a life sentence for her murder. I went behind the barbed wire and concrete walls to hear his story. Hi, Mark.

Hi.

I'm Elizabeth. Nice to meet you.

You too.

Why don't you have a seat? Okay. How long have you been in this prison, Mark?

Five years.

There is no question that what happened to IRA that day was terrible and tragic. But attorney Chris Muma, who's devoted her career to exonerating the wrongfully convicted, says Carver is also a victim.

We think Mark is innocent, and if Mark is innocent, the family has not received justice, and the true perpetrator is still out on the streets.

Muma took me out on the river to the spot where Carver and Cassida were fishing that morning. Mark would back his truck up down this road so he didn't walk the road. He drove down. He drove down and literally parked with the back of the truck right here.

He would sit on the back, the tailgate and fish.

Cassida left around 1230 that afternoon, leaving Carver alone. Half an hour later, two jet skiers out for a ride on the Cataba come upon a gruesome scene. I'm a boater on the Cataba River above the I 85 bridge.

Something blue and metallic catches the eye of one of the jet skiers.

There's a car that's run off an embankment, and there's a body laying there. I don't know if they're alive or not.

And as they motor up closer, they see the body of a young girl lying in the grass beside the car.

It is IRA Yarmalenko. Her body, her car found 100 yards upriver from Carver's fishing hole.

The police found Era's body right beside the driver's side of the car.

Elizabeth Leland has written extensively about the case for the Charlote Observer. She says the bizarre crime scene posed far more questions than answers.

She wasn't raped. She wasn't robbed. There were lots of things that just didn't make sense about this case.

Among them, the odd manner of death. These three ligatures around her neck.

There was the drawstring that had been taken out of her hoodie and wrapped around tight and knotted in several places. There was a bungee cord that had been tied around. And lastly, a very dainty little blue ribbon.

A disturbing discovery in the Catawba River a body.

As the media descends, police begin canvassing the area for witnesses. They talk to those two jet skiers and to construction workers who were in the area where IRA's body was found.

We went to see if anything could be done, but it was too late. There was no movement.

And of course, they find that fisherman calmly casting for carp just downstream. Mark Carver. And what did they tell you was happening?

They didn't tell me nothing. As they said, they need to get my name and address and my fishing license. I give them to them and then he give them back. I shook his hand. They went up through there.

Carver is cooperative, but not very helpful. He says he neither saw nor heard anything. So police have nothing but bad news to deliver when they notify IRA's family.

Police officer came to the door.

What did he say?

He slowly walked in and told us that unfortunately they have found my sister's body and that they're very certain that it's her.

I can't fathom getting news like that.

I think all of us simply collapsed where we were, and that was it.

Days pass with no arrest. The mystery now as deep as the sorrow.

I hope that when you go home tonight, you will tell everybody that you love them. You will tell everyone that you know.

That you love them.

Pavel Eulogizes, his sister, at a memorial service on campus. In the coming days, she is laid to rest while detectives speak to those who last saw her, piecing together her final steps.

This video is to represent the timeline for Miss Irina Yarmelenko.

Detectives record this timeline video.

IRA spent the morning running errands. She went to the credit union, then she went to the Goodwill.

A security camera catches her donating several bags of clothing.

And then she went to Jackson's Java, which was a coffee shop where she worked.

Takes approximately five minutes and 50 seconds to drive to Jackson's Java from Goodwill.

And from there to the Catawba River is about a 19 minutes drive.

This is the last documented moment of era's life. A grainy video of her car driving through the parking lot of a YMCA about half a mile from the embankment where her car was found. Police study it, searching for any sign of another person with her, but the video is so unclear, police can't tell. So they pursue the theory that IRA must have met her killer out on the river. If someone approached her that she didn't know, would she have had her defenses up?

Unfortunately for her, I think she was much more of an outgoing type of.

Person, the kind of person who would trust people she didn't know?

I think so, yeah.

With the search for the killer dragging on for weeks and then months, public pressure on the police to solve the crime mounts.

We were tormented by this search. We thought of it more or less constantly.

So police bring Mark Carver back in and start to do some fishing of their own.

Do you know what DNA is?

Are they about to find a murderer or make one?

You said you didn't see a car. You never heard a car, you never touched a car. Lo and behold, guess whose DNA is inside a dead girl's car?

Everybody was just in shock. We just couldn't believe it was happening.

Stay with us.

20Th Century Studios presents a Hunting in Venice, now streaming only on Hulu.

From the world of Agatha Christie you're coming.

With me comes what Entertainment Weekly calls kenneth Branagh's best poirot movie yet. I will not be naked. Then we must be careful. It's the perfect movie for fall.

It is fabulous.

It will keep you guessing until the very end.

My money's on the housekeeper.

A haunting in Venice, rated PG 13, may be inappropriate for children under 13. Now streaming only on Hulu.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary, disney's Frozen is coming to podcasting with a brand new story. The Frozen podcast features anna, I want to know about that. Elsa makes perfect sense to me. Olaf?

I don't get it.

And Kristoff, are we going on another adventure?

Oh, no. Of course. Experience Disney Frozen forces of nature, available.

Now on your favorite podcast.

Apparently on the ground floor of the Gaston County courthouse, we find this cardboard box inside the evidence from the IRA Yarmelenko crime scene. The three ligatures that were wrapped around her neck. A small floral bag from which one of those ligatures, a blue ribbon, had been torn. Look at how tight that knot is. Crime scene photos of her car on the banks of the river. All pieces of a Rubik's Cube of a case. Investigators spend six months working every possible lead and interviewing cooperative witnesses like Mark Carver repeatedly.

Did you see that little girl? I told him I didn't know what happened to girl. I went up there and helped her.

Carver and his cousin Neil Cassida both volunteered DNA samples. Meanwhile, IRA's family works the media, keeping images of the smiling student, the carefree spirit that was IRA alive in the public's mind.

We simply did the only thing we could do contact local media and get information out there so that possible witnesses would submit information.

Pavel, a brother who won't quit at one point, appeals directly to the killer.

I have no doubt that once you truly realize how deeply you've hurt us all, you'll have no choice but to surrender.

It is not until seven months after the murder that investigators finally catch a break. They have a DNA match. Traces of Mark Carver's DNA in one spot on the outside of the car, above the rear driver's side door. Neil Cassidy's DNA is in two spots on the inside of the right passenger window and on an armrest. What kind of DNA are we talking about?

It's DNA where skin cells have been shed. And typically it's called touch DNA.

It is not blood, DNA or semen, but police think it's enough. Even though the two cousins had no obvious motive for murder, the question that.

The DNA never answered and the police never could, was why these men would kill IRA.

Yarmalinko groping for answers. Police come up with a theory that IRA had somehow seen Carver and Cassida doing something so outrageous they had to kill her to keep their secret.

Their theory was that IRA was down there to photograph and caught the men doing something that they didn't want anybody to know about. And so that the men violently strangled her and pushed the car down the embankment. And that's why their DNA was found on it.

So now Mark Carver finds himself on the hot seat.

Do you know what DNA is? I found your DNA inside her car. I can explain. Yeah, I did my DNA. How much would you I bet you a million dollars my DNA ain't in that car. I didn't know that car was even up there. Ain't buying. I can't help it. But I didn't do it. You said you didn't see a car, you never heard a car, you never touched the car. Lo and behold, guess whose DNA is.

Inside a dead girl's car over and over again. You keep telling the police we didn't touch the car.

I told them and told them, but they didn't believe nothing.

We told them in fact, during that hour long interrogation, carver denies seeing IRA or touching her car more than 50 times. When the interview finally wraps up, police allow Carver and his cousin Neil Cassida to go home. But Neil's daughter Amy says the writing was on the wall.

He walked in and he was like, they're trying to pin this on me.

Did he tell you what they said to him?

Well, they were saying that they knew he did it. He just needed to confess it.

Two days later, before sunrise, police show up to arrest the men. They haul them back in and give them one last chance to confess.

All right, Neil, we got a few procedural things to do real quick.

This is Neil Cassida y'all parking around creek.

I swear my mom was buried, but I didn't have a thing to do.

No confession, no matter.

Police charge Mark Carver and Neil Cassada with her murder.

The two men are charged with first degree murder, even though Neil Cassida had already passed a polygraph. The men appear stunned and confused at their arraignment the following day.

Like everybody was just in shock. We just couldn't believe it was happening. They both just was kind hearted people, and they just would help anybody. They wouldn't hurt them. They would try to help them. My dad was not that kind of person. Murder was not in him.

We do not want to go to trial until we have all the evidence.

The man leading the charge against Carver and Cassida is Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell. But it is a slow charge even after the men make bail. Neil Cassida's family greeted him inside the Gaston County Jail tonight.

No comment, please.

Police continue to test and eliminate eight other suspects. Two years pass before prosecutors bring the case to trial. The time weighs heavily on Neil Cassida.

They put him on house arrest. I remember a lot of times when I go over there and see him, he would sit in his room and he would rub his chest like this, and he would just sit there and stare.

Then on the eve of the opening arguments in Neil Cassida's case, a shocking development.

It was Sunday morning. The trial started on Monday. He was in the kitchen, and he told my mom, I'm having a little trouble breathing. And he just fell over.

Neil Cassida never gets his day in court.

Neil Cassada died in his Mount Holly home Sunday morning.

Those two years was very hard on him. He was so worried that he was going to prison for something he didn't do.

Even with one of the defendants dead, the state pushes forward with the prosecution of the other, Mark Carver, who at the time is represented by court appointed attorney Brent Ratchford. He believes the prosecution has little to go on.

Mr. Carver never ran, cooperated with police, gave multiple interviews. The same story each time and every single time, every single time I've met him and talked to him. I didn't do this, Brent. I didn't do this.

Before the trial, Carver has offered the deal of a lifetime. Plead guilty to second degree murder and spend just four to eight years in prison. Ratchford thought the deal was a strong statement about the state's weak case.

I'd never gotten such a low offer. He turned it down without batting an eye. I'm not going to plead guilty for something I didn't do.

You'd rather spend the rest of your life in prison?

Yeah.

Mark Carver walked calmly into court in March 2011. Carver's legal reckoning finally arrives.

He's upbeat and feeling good. He's innocent.

So we're ready for our day at trial. Prosecutors build their case on three key pieces of evidence. The first, Carver's proximity to the crime scene. If he were less than 100 yards from where IRA was killed, prosecutors argue his claim that he heard nothing that day can't be true. Detectives testify about an experiment they conducted on the river. One detective stood where Carver was fishing, another where IRA was. According to testimony, they spoke in normal voices and could hear each other.

We had a lot of issue with that, but it was allowed to come in anyway.

The second piece of evidence is that touch DNA found on IRA's car that matched Mark Carver. Prosecutors say it proves he touched the car and therefore must have been at the crime scene. And to drive that point home, the state has an ace in the hole. A moment from that interrogation where Carver, police testify, gave himself away.

I believe the words he used was a little thing or a little.

Detective William Terry was also in the room during that interrogation.

He said that she came up to him about right here.

The gotcha moment was when the police detective was recounting the interrogation and said that Mark Carver knew that IRA was little.

That moment is crucial. Carver had always said he had never seen IRA. So prosecutors ask how could he know how tall she was unless he was lying?

The very first thing I thought of was, they got you.

Judge Timothy Kincaid presided over Carver's murder trial. That's what did it for you.

That was a turning point of that trial for me.

And with that, the prosecution rested its case.

Everyone was then sort of on the edge of their chairs, waiting for the defense to present a case.

But to the shock of Carver's family, ratchford decides the state's case is so weak, he will present no witnesses or evidence for the defense.

They could not explain how the crime occurred based on that. The jury's not going to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt.

They taught us no way that they were going to be convicted.

They're wrong. It takes the jury just a few hours to return with a verdict. Guilty of first degree murder.

When I heard that verdict come down, I couldn't breathe. I was like, oh, my God, they got it wrong.

Judge Kincaid sentences Carver to life in prison. But while his cell door slams shut, another investigation is just beginning. So let's send you over to where IRA was. How much of the state's case really holds water? Tell her to yell. Stay with us.

Mark Carver sits in prison, convicted in the murder of IRA Yarmelenko. All along, he has steadfastly maintained his innocence, and he has appealed his conviction twice. But both those appeals failed. Now he has a powerful new ally. Will she be able to convince the court to set him free once again? Elizabeth Vargas, gregory F. Taylor's innocent.

Chris Muma gets people out of prison. Her organization, the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, has had a hand in overturning 19 convictions.

The point at which I really thought maybe there was something to this case was finding out that Chris Muma was involved.

And I thank you so much.

Muma takes on only 2% of the clients who approach her. In 2013, she agreed to make Mark Carver's fight her own. You rarely take these. You picked Mark's case. Why?

The bottom line is, is there a valid question mark, and is there a way to get the answer? Mark's case met all the criteria for us.

And if anyone ever needed a sharp legal mind in his corner, it is Mark Carver. Muma argues he was easily manipulated by police because of his limited education. Is it hard for you to read and write?

Yeah, I can read a little bit, but I can't write. I'm literate.

You really have to go all the way up the hill.

One of the first problems Muma noticed in the case was that the killers were, she believes, physically incapable of killing.

There's all kinds of things that don't fit together. It doesn't fit together that two men who are so limited in their physical ability could do this to a young, vibrant, strong girl.

Neil had a terrible heart condition. His family said he couldn't walk 20ft without becoming winded. Mark Carver has carpal tunnel in his hands. He says he can't even hold a plate for long without dropping it.

Those years working in a cotton mill had left Carver disabled. He showed us the scars on his arms from multiple surgeries. So how does that affect what you can do and what you can't do?

I can't grab nothing, hold it for a long time.

Can you button your cuff back up?

Yeah, just take me a minute. I'll get it in a minute. You have to give me time.

Okay. Could these hands throttle someone to death? And even if Carver had killed IRA for reasons unknown, why on earth would he stay at the scene?

It doesn't make sense. Who's going to kill someone and then go right back to fishing?

Muma also points to this man who asked us not to reveal his identity. He was on the Cataba river that day and even spoke to Mark Carver around 02:00 p.m.. In that crucial period after Ero was killed and before police questioned Mark Carver.

We talked about fishing and talked about his family. We had a good conversation for about 30, 35 minutes.

But most importantly, this man says he didn't notice anything about Carver that suggested he had just been through a homicidal struggle.

Mr. Carver wasn't muddy, he wasn't wet. He had no scratches on him. He was just as normal as anybody could be normal just sitting on the back of his SUV fishing.

Muma thinks this man's testimony could have been important at Carver's trial, but he was never called to testify. Instead, the jury heard from that detective who described the sound experiment police conducted on the river, trying to disprove Carver's claim that he heard nothing. We recreated that experiment for ourselves, so let's send you over to where IRA was, okay? I'm going to stay here where Mark was, okay? And we're going to have you talk. Remember, on the stand, the detective said he spoke in a normal voice and could still be heard from the fishing hole.

Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

I don't hear anything.

Can you hear me?

Did they do it yet?

Elizabeth, can you hear me?

Tell her to yell.

Can you hear me.

Now? I hear her.

Can you hear me? I can hear you. You cannot hear each other talking at a normal voice. You can't hear each other talking when you raise your voice several levels. And that's what I did with you.

You shouted as loud as you could.

I did shout as loud as I could.

Of course, the jurors never saw an experiment like this. They just heard the detective's testimony about it. And this isn't the only time Muma thinks that the detective's testimony may have misled the jury.

He said that she was I believe the word he used was a little thing.

Remember that bombshell moment when he described how Carver seemed to know IRA's Height even though he claimed never to have seen her?

He said that she came up to him about right here.

Muma says you need to look at the actual video, which was never played in court, and understand that police were interrogating a man with an IQ of 61 and had no idea what he was up against.

If you look at the full interrogation, the detective was asking Mark to tell him about Era.

In fact, it is the detective interrogating Mark who calls Era little and then encourages him to describe her, even though he's already said over and over he's never seen her.

It is the detective who is telling Mark. The detective stands up and says, she would have come about here on you, right? And Mark says, yeah, I guess. And he said, well, stand up and show me.

If y'all were standing up looking each other, did she be looking you? In. Show me stand up to him about how tall she was on you and.

Mark basically mimics what the detective did.

Probably about right there.

When they asked you how tall IRA was and you said, she came up to me about here.

That was just my girls come up about there and they're the same age. So I was just going by. That what you know.

So you were just guessing?

Yeah, I was guessing.

Was he being manipulated?

I think it was manipulative to present that at trial without clarification. And I think it was error for the defense to not challenge that again.

Jurors in the case never saw this video. They just heard the detective describe it. Judge Timothy Kincaid, who presided over the case, also found the detective's trial testimony persuasive. But he'd never seen the tape either. This is the actual interrogation. What do you think after watching that videotape of the interrogation?

I think it was quite leading.

The detective was using the language first. In other words, he was. Do you think that mark Carver was being led by the detectives and is simple enough that he would just echo whatever this man was saying?

I can't answer that. I think it does put a new light on the whole thing.

What kind of light?

It does make me question whether or not Mark Carver did it. Certainly I think that could have created reasonable doubt.

But what about that final and most damning piece of evidence, the touch DNA that seemed to place Carver at the crime scene? When you hear the words DNA match, that sounds like as close to a sure thing as you can get. Muma says, not so fast. Whatever you think you know about the infallibility of DNA, think again.

Is there another explanation for how that DNA got there?

Stay with us.

Emergency floating in Catarbo River.

In the hours after IRA Yarmelenko's body was found, local news crews recorded this footage of police processing the scene. It looks like they're all over it, but attorney Chris Muma says looks can be deceiving.

It was actually two months later before the vehicle was swabbed.

Why did the police wait two months before swabbing that car for DNA?

It seems from the records that people just lost track of who was doing what.

Lost track? In a high profile murder case?

I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't swab a vehicle immediately.

Getting DNA from a bodily fluid like blood is nothing new. But in 2008, the ability to lift DNA from an object that had been merely touched was cutting edge forensic science. It was that technology that gave detectives here the break they needed. Those traces of Mark Carver's touch DNA on IRA's car.

Mark's DNA was not found on anything else. It was not found on a steering wheel, a key, the ligatures around miss Yarmelenko's neck, her clothing, the gear shift, a seat, a front door was not found. On any of those and they were tested.

What about under IRA's fingernails? Was there any DNA there?

There were two profiles. There was hers, which you would expect to find there, but there also was another profile that was unidentified.

To this day, police have not been able to identify to whom that mystery DNA belongs, or explain why so little of Mark Carver's or Neil Cassidy's DNA was found at the crime scene. Wouldn't his DNA have been all over era? We're talking about a life and death struggle here, a death match.

I would expect to see more of his DNA on her body or on her clothing.

Dr Lawrence Kobalinski is a DNA expert who has testified in nearly 50 trials. He says most of all, he would expect to see Carvers touch DNA on those ligatures around IRA's neck.

You would expect sufficient numbers of cells to be left behind. The simplest explanation is that he did not touch those ligatures.

And if it's possible that Carver didn't touch the ligatures, is it also possible he didn't actually touch the car?

Most people think of DNA only being able to be in a place if they specifically touch it, and they don't consider the fact that someone else may have had contact with them and then touch the car.

There are two ways that DNA can be deposited on an item of evidence. One way is a direct transfer, in which, as in, I touch something and I leave behind DNA from my hands. The second possibility is an indirect or secondary transfer, where I shake your hand and now I touch a vehicle and I transfer your DNA onto that vehicle.

So how could Carver's DNA have been transferred? Remember, he spoke to police that day on the banks of the river.

The officer who came over and took Mark's driver's license. So he's holding an item that has Mark's DNA on it and he shook Mark's hand.

And look again at the crime scene photos and video, muma says it's clear some of the officers were not wearing gloves, even while they were touching the car.

They're touching the inside of the car, they're touching the outside of the car, they're touching the doors, the handles, so it's contaminated.

This officer even appears to lean on the car door. And something else is startling. While reviewing the video shot at the crime scene that day, we came across this footage. It appears to show an officer rubbing the exact area of IRI Yarmelenko's car where Mark Carver's touch DNA was found. And as you can see, he's not wearing gloves. Were any of the officers who were touching that car, did any of them have their DNA tested?

There's no record of any DNA being taken from any officer who was at the scene.

At Carver's trial, secondary transfer of his touch DNA was dismissed as highly unlikely, but it has happened before. In 2012, a millionaire from California was murdered in his home. Forensic experts found DNA on his fingernails that they were able to link to 26 year old Lucas Anderson. There was only one problem. Anderson had an airtight alibi at the time of the murder. He was in the hospital being treated for severe intoxication.

It turns out the same two paramedics that scooped up Anderson, who was living on the streets, were at the murder scene a short time later.

Once prosecutors realized Anderson's DNA had been transferred to the crime scene by paramedics, he was finally cleared.

If you're not careful, you're going to end up putting somebody at a crime scene who was never there.

So why didn't Carver's original defense attorney call a DNA expert to explain how that might have happened here?

Sometimes you're open in Pandora's Box, you think you're putting in a lot of good evidence, but it could turn around and bite you. Then a DNA expert is not going to help you.

Ratchford's decisions continue to haunt Mark's family. Robin, have you spoken to Mark in prison?

We speak to him twice a week and go and visit when we can. He just wants to come home. Just imagine living every day in there, knowing you didn't do it.

But if Mark Carver didn't kill IRA Yarmalenko, who did?

Did she travel from Charlote by herself or someone else in that car?

An inmate wrote a letter said that he had killed IRA Yarmalenko.

The hunt for other Suspects next. Ever since the day 20 year old IRA Yarmalenko's bright life was cut short, mark Carver's answers have been the same. Mark. Did you kill IRA?

No.

Did you strangle that young woman?

No. I didn't even see her.

There's some saying about how a lie has a short life, but the truth lives on forever. He's never wavered.

What does that tell you?

Tells me he's telling the truth.

And if Mark Carver is telling the truth, that means a killer is still on the loop. Someone who can solve the puzzle of that crime scene on the Catawba River. Why? For example, were there three ligatures around IRA's neck?

It's definitely overkill. The hoodie string was probably enough to cut off the air supply in her neck.

That alone would have killed her.

I think that alone would have killed her. The other two, to me, almost seemed decorative.

The blue ribbon almost like a bow. Perhaps it was a crime of passion. At one point, investigators entertained theory that IRA knew her killer. Could it have been a fellow student who may have been stalking her? Or a customer from that coffee house where she worked who some said might have been obsessed with her? Or someone who coerced IRA to let them into her car that day?

The question was presented to me did she travel from Charlote by herself? Was there someone else in that car?

Remember, investigators were never able to enhance these surveillance images enough to confirm if IRA was alone or not.

The footage was not good enough quality where someone could tell whether there was another person in the car, either in the front seat, back seat.

Even if Iro was alone, there was no shortage of other suspects in the area who might have committed a crime of opportunity.

There were a lot of construction workers. There was a lot of traffic, a lot of people traffic. Ample opportunity for her to come in contact with someone that was totally unknown to her.

Last, but perhaps most bizarre, a confession that came early in the case.

An inmate in the Mecklenburg County jail.

The case of a murdered, UNC Charlotte.

Student, wrote a letter to one of our local news anchors and said that he had killed IRI Yarmerlenko.

Police talked to the self proclaimed killer, even tested his DNA, but determined his confession was just a strange way to meet a local celebrity.

And they believe that he was infatuated with the news anchor and saw this as a way of getting a chance to talk with her.

Was there any sign that he chris Mumas says the only way to resolve the questions surrounding Mark Carver's guilt is for the district's Attorney to release the DNA evidence to be re examined. The district Attorney in this case has opposed you every step of the way.

He has. He has. And I've asked to sit down with him. I've asked to meet, I asked her.

Why should I help you to get somebody off that I firmly believe is guilty?

Why is he so convinced he got the right guy? I mean, I would think any DA? Would want to be absolutely sure the right killer is behind bars.

The system focuses on finality. We're done with that case. We're 100% sure it becomes part of their culture that they had to have gotten it right, to have gotten it wrong would be unthinkable. So they don't think that.

Prosecutors in this case declined to talk to us on camera, but they have steadfastly defended the touch DNA evidence. After all, even if Carver's was inadvertently transferred to the car, his cousin Neil Cassidas was found there, too. What are the ODS of two DNA transfers happening?

There's another way to look at this. If we do believe in secondary transfer, we have to start thinking about secondary transfer of both.

But Carver is adamant his only crime is being a gullible fisherman in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why do you think police were so focused on you?

Because they just wanted somebody to take the route for it, and they didn't care who done it.

I think they thought they were easy.

Targets because they were uneducated.

They wasn't highly sophisticated. They were real poor.

Pretty poor?

Yeah, pretty poor.

There is another powerful voice suggesting Carver's case should get another look. Someone that might surprise you. The trial judge, Timothy Kincaid.

Part of a district attorney's oath is to do justice. And if that's what justice requires. That's what you got to do.

Carver's original defense attorney stands by his handling of the case, but he has been haunted by it ever since.

This is the one trial in 20 years that I have lost sleepover. Mark Carver is innocent. I would love to get a second chance.

A second chance for Mark Carver. That's what Chris Muma hopes she can deliver. In December 2016, she filed a motion demanding Mark Carver receive a new trial.

We thought that he had ineffective assistance to counsel, that he should have had a forensic expert of his own testifying that they should have put the videotape in.

What are the chances that you're going to be successful?

We've been around this block enough to know it's not good to bet on it. So we're going to fight for him and we're going to hope that the district attorney will work with us. It's a long process, but I do believe the truth will come out and Mark will be free from prison.

Iris'family believes the truth is already out and it's time for everyone to accept it. Are you absolutely convinced Mark Carver is your sister's killer?

I'm convinced that he was one of the killers. If there's evidence that shows that Mark Carver is not guilty, that evidence needs to be stronger than the evidence that was used to convict him.

With Mark put away, IRA's family would like his story to go away.

To us, it's just more trauma, forcing.

You to relive the worst moments of your lives.

Yes, but at the same time this is part of the overall system of justice in this country.

What do you think is going to happen to you?

Mark will get old and die, I guess.

In prison.

Less I can get out of it. Get out of prison.

What would you say to IRA's family?

I'm sorry that it happened and I know they're hurting over a kid. I want them to know I'm innocent.

And if you believe Mark Carver, it means the mystery of what really happened to IRA Yarmelenko on that clear May morning remains as murky as the Cataba River. Shortly after the murder, a cross was placed there in IRA's honor. Before we left, we found it in the brush.

This is the cross.

Nothing else remains.

This is Deborah Roberts. In June 2019, chris MUMA's efforts finally paid off. A judge overturned Mark Carver's conviction, saying he had ineffective counsel. At trial, the judge also cited new testing standards used in North Carolina that call into question the DNA used to convict Carver. Three years later, Gaston County DA travis Page, who took office after Carver's conviction was overturned, dismissed the case, saying there was no longer sufficient DNA evidence to support the charge. After spending nearly nine years in prison, mark Carver is now living with his family. IRA Yarmelenko's murder is still unsolved.

Employees unlock up to 1000 euro tax free with a new options card digital gift Card with Options card. There's no fees and no fuss. Your full balance is yours for up to five years. Shop your favorite brands and see your balance at all times in your mobile wallet. It's simple to buy and simple to use. Send instantly by email. No admin, registration or forms required. You can even re gift and share your options card with family and friends. Buy now at optionscard. Ie.