A Florida prisoner already serving a life sentence for a separate crime has been charged in the brutal 2002 killing of a 15-year-old girl in her Miramar home, police said Tuesday.
Nearly 20 years after 15-year-old Farrah Carter was stabbed to death, Miramar Police officials said they believe 56-year-old Joseph Pollard is responsible for her killing.
Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 after he was convicted on armed robbery, attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault charges in a Miami-Dade case, according to Flortida Department of Corrections records.
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Police said advancements in DNA technology led them to Pollard, who now faces a first-degree murder charge in Carter's death.
At a news conference Tuesday, Carter's family said they don't know Pollard or the motive for the killing. Mother Kim Battle said the news doesn't necessarily bring closure.
"For the detectives to come forward with this information, it is very pleasing in a sense but it is still heartbreaking without her being here to see what her life would have been like, to see the children maybe she would have had," Battle said.
Carter was found stabbed to death in her home at 6525 Southwest 27th Street on May 22, 2002.
Police said Carter's mother and sisters had been gone but when they returned to the home, they found a bloody scene and evidence that a violent struggle had occurred inside.
Police arrived at the home and found the body of Carter, who had been stabbed multiple times.
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Officials said the attacker had been cut and left blood behind at the scene, allowing them to obtain DNA.
"For 19 years I haven't been able to get my life together. Everything has changed in my life and right now it is like the first day of the rest day of my life," father Tony Carter said Tuesday.
Pollard denied any involvement in the case, police said.
"We interviewed Joseph Pollard. He denies all involvement. He denies that he knows the victim. All the victims' family. There is no association between the victim's family and any of her associates," Miramar Police Det. Joe Tomlin said.
Police are looking for more information on Pollard, and want to speak with anyone in the community who knew him in the early 2000s.
