The Sacramento Police Department has arrested 56-year-old, Donald Carter for the 1989 murder of 80-year-old Sophia McAllister.

On May 23, 1989, at 1205 p.m., the Sacramento Police Department received a call to the 500 block of Eleanor, to check the welfare of an elderly White female.  Several neighbors had reported that she lived alone and had not been seen in two days. 

Officers respond and find the victim, Sophia McAllister, deceased inside the residence.  The victim had obvious upper body trauma and the home appeared to have been ransacked.   The investigation continued for several years with no viable leads or suspects.

In 2005, The Cold Case Unit requested that evidence be re-examined for possible DNA evidence.  From the re-examination the Sacramento County Crime Lab was able to develop a DNA profile for a possible suspect.  This DNA was entered into the State and National DNA offender data bases with no match. 

In March 2009, Donald Carter was arrested by the Sacramento Police Department on a narcotics charge.  When he was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail, a DNA sample was obtained.  Carter's DNA profile was submitted into the State DNA database and it matched the DNA profile that was developed in the McAllister case. 

On Friday, July 3, 2009, Donald Carter was arrested for the murder of Sophia McAllister and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail.  Records indicate that in 1989, Carter lived just 1 ½ blocks from the victim.