DNA Testing Nabs Suspect Sex Offender Linked To Rape Cold Case

CHARLOTTE, NC — Charlotte police arrested a 52-year-old man listed on the state’s sex offender registry they say has been identified as the primary suspect in the sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl walking home from the bus stop in north Charlotte 23 years ago.

The case had grown cold until Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department received a federal grant earlier this year that provided resources for rape kit DNA testing. Charlotte has a backlog of more than 800 sexual assault kits that have either only been partially tested or not processed at all, The Charlotte Observer reported.

On July 14, 1995, the female victim was walking home around 6 p.m., when an unknown man with a knife grabbed her and forced her behind a building in the 4800 block of North Tryon Street, where he sexually assaulted her, CMPD said.

According to CMPD Sgt. Daniel Price, a DNA match was made on suspect Christopher McNear, 52, who was also listed in the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation sex offender database.

“He had committed some crimes to where it allowed them to enter his DNA into a database,” Price said.

According to the sex offender registry, McNear was convicted of indecent liberties with a 14-year-old victim in 1997, and a 15-year-old victim in 1998.

McNear was arrested Wednesday and was charged with first degree rape and kidnapping. “I can say he wasn’t expecting this,”Price said at a press conference Thursday afternoon, adding that the victim was “very relieved that this person who attacked her over 20 years ago is now in custody.”

“We, in Charlotte, have taken the initiative to get grant funding to go back and re-test cases that were tested prior to DNA,” Price said. “You used to test a rape kit and you would get whether the person’s blood type was A, B or AB, which doesn’t narrow it down to anyone.”

In October 2017, CMPD received a Department of Justice grant of $837,342 aimed at getting Charlotte caught up with DNA testing, the Observer reported. In addition to testing, the grant paid for two new laptops for sexual assault detectives, as well as the hiring of a part-time researcher.

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Photo via Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office