CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Investigators say they've found new evidence that will help them solve the vicious murder of a 61-year-old woman in west Charlotte earlier this year.
Friends said Jennifer Banner was last seen walking on Craighead Road near the Los do Hermanos food store on October 13. Three days later, her body was found wrapped in a tarp in the parking lot of Shoe Warehouse on Freedom Drive.
"It's a very unique, atypical homicide case," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Detective Eddie Quevedo.
At first, police called it a death investigation, thinking Banner had died from natural causes.
"We weren't looking for nothing suspicious until the medical examiner contacted us and told us we had a homicide," Quevedo said.
Banner's preliminary cause of death? Trauma. Police hesitate to say exactly how she was killed.
"It's a brutal and vicious attack," said Quevedo, refusing to get into specifics. "Trauma is our preliminary finding."
Quevedo is anxious to talk about new evidence in the case. He says area surveillance cameras showed a car, a four-door white sedan, possibly a Hyundai Sonata, not far from where Banner's body was found. And he says there are other red flags about the car.
"The actual time of night and where it was located, near the crime scene," Quevedo explained.
He says the car seems to have come from the Ashley Road area. He's hoping that releasing new photos of the car could lead to an even bigger clue.
"It's extremely frustrating," Detective Quevedo said. "You want to get closure, justice to find out who did this for the victim."
Anyone with information about this murder is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600. You could get cash for helping police find the killer.