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New DNA Sample Cracks 44-Year Old Murder Case In South Carolina

(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Dylan Housman Deputy News Editor
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A new DNA sample from a South Carolina man who was arrested for pointing a gun while drunk has cracked open a decades-long cold case, according to reports. 

Charles Ugvine Coleman, 65 has been arrested for the 1976 murder and rape of Elizabeth Ann Howell Wilson, the Associated Press reported. Coleman’s DNA was collected in April when he was arrested for pointing and presenting a firearm, as well as using a firearm while under the influence, per the AP. (RELATED: Homeless Man Asks Store Clerk To Call 911 Before Shooting And Killing Deli Customer)

Pointing and presenting a firearm is a felony that carries a punishment of up to five years in prison, meaning that South Carolina law required Coleman’s DNA to be collected and sent to state officials as part of the case. After Coleman pleaded guilty in that case in September, receiving 2 ½ years probation and a suspended seven-year prison sentence, the DNA results came back and linked him to evidence from the 1976 murder, according to the AP.

Wilson disappeared after her shift working at a textile mill in Chester County on March 20th, 1976, the AP reports. Coleman has a lengthy criminal record spanning back to 1975, the year before Wilson’s murder. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1977 for assault and battery with intent to kill, housebreaking, and larceny, per the AP.