MISSOULA – A 38-year-old man suspected in a 1992 murder in South Carolina has been arrested in Missoula, where authorities say he’s apparently been living for several years.
Detectives with the Missoula County Sheriff’s office interviewed Charles Welty on Thursday and say he confessed to fatally shooting 22-year-old James Horton on Oct. 30, 1992, in Summerville, S.C.
Charging documents filed in Berkeley County, S.C., say Welty told the investigators he and a co-defendant participated in the sexual assault, assault and battery, and murder of Horton, who was stationed at a naval base in Charleston.
Stanley Garland, an investigator with the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, referred all questions to an NCIS spokesman, who declined to comment.
Missoula County Sheriff’s Capt. Greg Hintz says Welty spoke to investigators voluntarily.