DNA technology leads to arrest in 1988 killing of Orlando woman after nearly four decades

A North Carolina man has been charged in the 1988 killing of an Orlando, Florida, woman after advances in DNA technology helped investigators identify a suspect nearly four decades after the case went cold, police said.

The Orlando Police Department announced Thursday that Willie J. Carpenter was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service North Carolina Regional Task Force on charges of first-degree murder in the death of Diane Matthews.

Matthews' remains were found Sept. 8, 1988, inside the downtown Orlando answering service where she worked.

Police said the injuries to Matthews' face were so severe she was initially unrecognizable, and a co-worker identified her by her hair.

Detectives collected fingerprints and biological evidence from the crime scene and conducted numerous witness interviews, but DNA technology was not routinely used in criminal investigations at the time.

Although investigators preserved the evidence and continued pursuing leads, no suspect was identified, and the case eventually went cold.

The investigation took a significant turn more than two decades later when Carpenter's DNA was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, following an unrelated arrest on charges related to a sexual offense in North Carolina with an underage female, police said.

Investigators identified Carpenter's DNA as a potential match to biological evidence collected during the Matthews homicide investigation.

Detectives interviewed Carpenter in 2013, but he denied knowing Matthews and declined to provide a DNA sample.

When investigators interviewed Carpenter again in 2024, he voluntarily provided a DNA sample.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted additional testing on the sample, producing results in 2025 that further strengthened the evidentiary link between Carpenter and biological evidence recovered from the crime scene, police said.

Detectives then spent months reviewing the evidence, consulting with prosecutors and eliminating other potential suspects before seeking an arrest warrant this year.

Carpenter was taken into custody without incident and remains in North Carolina pending extradition to Florida.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Orlando Police Department for additional information, including court records and details surrounding the investigation.