Cold case unit solves south Charlotte sexual assault from 1993

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A sexual assault cold case from 1993 has been solved, said the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit.

[1984 COLD CASE: New DNA results identify killer in 1984 Salisbury]

On June 5, 1993, officers were called to an area near the 13500 block of Lancaster Highway where a then-37-year-old woman was sexually assaulted by an armed suspect.

She was gardening alone at 1:30 p.m. at her church.

She was treated at a hospital, where a sex assault kit was completed.

During DNA testing over the past several years, authorities got a hit.

Convicted offender and Johnnie Lee Gurley, who is now deceased, was responsible for the crime, police said.

Gurley was convicted in 1973 for a 1972 rape and kidnapping that happened in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and was paroled in 1992.

His parole was revoked in 1994, and he was sent back to prison. Gurley died in 2014.

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Cox Media Group