Carl Chavers - Repeat Sex Offender - Linked to rape and murder by DNA

Police had an incredible break in a homicide cold case of a 15 year old girl. The suspect, Carl Chavers, 40, was in the Tomoka State Prison, located in Daytona Beach on an unrelated charge when cold case detectives solved the 9 year homicide. The break in the cold case comes as a result of DNA evidence.

Carl Chavers was arrested in 2008 on a sexual battery charge; officers took DNA samples from Chavers. Those DNA samples matched DNA that had been taken from the body of Laquetta Chael White. Laquetta was 15 years old when she left her home to go to a dentist appointment. The date was December 7, 2000 and Laquetta was 15 years old. She left her residence at approximately 9:00 a.m. to board a bus headed for Davis Islands. She never made it to her appointment.

Later that day, Laquetta Chael White’s body was discovered on North O’Berry Lane, south of East 21st Avenue. She was naked and had been strangled to death. Laquetta was identified through her fingerprints. After Carl Chavers sex conviction in 2008, he became a prime suspect in the case.

In the 2008 case, Carl Chavers sexually abused a 13 year old girl and impregnated her. He is serving a 24 year sentence in that case. As cold case detectives John Columbia and Eric Houston worked the case, they discovered that Carl Chavers was living in the same neighborhood as Laquetta at the time of her murder. The DNA evidence, however, was the concrete proof that they needed. Chavers has been charged with 1st degree murder and sexual battery.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte