WINNSBORO, S.C. — A man has pleaded guilty to a charge that he murdered a woman in South Carolina almost 46 years ago, a case wasn't solved until decades later.
Charles Ugvine Coleman of Union County, South Carolina entered into a deal with prosecutors and the judge on Tuesday at the Fairfield County Courthouse. This came the same day his jury trial had been set to start. By entering the plea, a trial will be avoided.
Under the terms of his agreement, Coleman is sentenced to life in prison for killing 45-year-old Elizabeth Ann Howell Wilson.
According to SLED, on March 20, 1976, Wilson went missing while she was working as a spinner at the Eureka Plant of Spring Mills in Chester.
Her body was later found in a stolen vehicle in Fairfield County near the intersection of Ashford Ferry Road and Dave Jenkins Road in Blair. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled and beaten, according to the report.
SLED, the Chester County Sheriff's Office, and the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office continued to work on the case for years.
However, back in 2020 investigators arrested Coleman after a forensics breakthrough was able to identify him as the suspect through DNA.