Mark Carver is serving life in prison for a murder he says he did not commit. He was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder but says he did not kill 20-year-old UNC Charlotte student Irina “Ira” Yarmolenko who was strangled to death on the banks of the Catawba River in 2008. Carver and his cousin Neal Cassada were fishing nearby that day and DNA that matched both men was found in Yarmolenko’s car. (Cassada died of a heart attack in 2010, before his trial began.)
The website FreeMarkCarver.com alleges Yarmolenko committed suicide, and that the suicide was mistaken for murder. The site has posted “a short version of the suicide reenactment video.” ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas visited Carver in jail. Her interview with him will air Friday, December 9 at 10pm on ABC 20/20.
