DNA links suspect to 1993 Charlotte sexual assault cold case arrest

A Charlotte woman’s bedroom in 1993 became the starting point for a case that did not get a name until 33 years later. Police say Willie James Little, 57, was arrested and charged after DNA work tied him to the sexual assault of Lois Gist Hunter, then 79, inside her home at 322 Benjamin St.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said Hunter reported the assault on Friday, July 9, 1993, around 3 a.m. She told officers that an unknown, uninvited suspect entered her bedroom while she was in bed, sexually assaulted her, and left the residence. Hunter died in 1996, which is why police said her name could be released.

The breakthrough did not happen all at once. Detectives first obtained a DNA profile from evidence in 2018. In 2023, investigators developed a Y-STR profile, which can help narrow the male line in cases where a standard comparison does not produce a direct answer. In 2025, detectives got a familial DNA match that pointed to a relative connected to the unknown suspect. After reviewing the family history, investigators identified Little as a potential suspect, then confirmed him in 2026 through additional DNA testing.

CMPD said the arrest came on April 16, 2026, when members of the Cold Case Unit and the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team took Little into custody. He was transported to the Law Enforcement Center for interview and then transferred to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office. Police announced the arrest and charging Thursday, April 23, 2026. Little is charged with first-degree burglary and second-degree rape.

The case shows how long a cold-case file can stay alive when investigators keep returning to it with better tools. CMPD thanked the Crime Laboratory, the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory, and the federal Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant for helping pay for additional outside testing. Detective Melendez is the lead investigator.

The Charlotte department has built a long-running cold-case operation around that kind of persistence. Its sexual assault cold case unit was created in 2006 and has solved hundreds of cases, according to WCNC. CMPD says it has about 600 open homicide cases dating back to the early 1960s, and its Sexual Assault Unit says it works adult assaults with the goal of identifying, apprehending and helping prosecute suspects.

The larger true-crime question now sits right in the wake of this arrest: how many other cases only look impossible until older evidence gets another pass through familial searching, Y-STR analysis, and investigative genetic genealogy. In Charlotte, one 1993 assault finally found its way from an unsolved file to a named suspect, and the timeline itself is the story.