DNA genealogy cracks 27-year-old Charlotte sexual assault cold case

A ski mask, a home invasion, and a DNA profile that sat in the system for years finally broke open a Charlotte cold case. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Tuesday that Eric Lee Howard, 48, was charged in a sexual assault that was reported on Saturday, Jan. 9, 1999, nearly 27 years after the attack.

CMPD said the victim reported that a man wearing a ski mask forced his way into her home, sexually assaulted her, and fled. Investigators collected evidence that produced a male DNA profile in 1999 and entered it into CODIS, but the case did not move until newer forensic methods gave detectives another path.

That turn came in 2022, when CMPD detectives submitted the profile for forensic investigative genealogy. The work led them to Howard as a potential suspect, and by 2025 detectives, working with the Asheville Police Department, located him in Asheville, North Carolina. Additional DNA testing in 2026 confirmed Howard as the suspect, police said.

Detectives with CMPD’s Cold Case Unit, assisted by the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team, traveled to Asheville on April 28, interviewed Howard, and then transferred him to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office. He faces first-degree burglary, first-degree kidnapping, two counts of second-degree rape, second-degree sexual offense, and attempted second-degree sexual offense.

The arrest is another sign that Charlotte’s cold-case files are not frozen in time. CMPD says it has about 600 open homicide cold cases dating back to the early 1960s, a staggering backlog that shows how many old files still wait for a breakthrough. The department has also announced a string of recent sexual-assault cold-case actions, including a 33-year-old case on April 23, 2026, a 32-year-old case on Sept. 3, 2025, and a 28-year-old case on May 9, 2023.

CMPD credited the Crime Laboratory, Ramapo College’s IGG Center, Parabon NanoLabs and the Federal SAKI Grant for helping pay for the outside testing that moved the case forward. For a victim whose report was filed when the internet was still young, the arrest is more than a headline. It is a reminder that old evidence can still speak, and that long-silent cases can still find their way back into court.