Jury finds Chisholm man guilty of murder in 1980s cold case

HIBBING, Minn. — A jury found Michael Carbo, Jr., guilty on two counts of first-degree murder Tuesday afternoon in St. Louis County Court — an emotional ending to the long-unsolved case of who killed Nancy Daugherty.

Carbo shook his head as Judge Robert Friday read the verdict, delivered after about nine hours of deliberation by the jury of seven women and five men.

Daugherty, a 38-year-old mother of two, was found dead in her Chisholm home on July 16, 1986. Carbo was 18 at the time and lived less than a mile away in the small Iron Range town, but he was never a suspect until recent advances in DNA testing.

Both the prosecution and defense placed Carbo at Daugherty's modest home around the time of her death. His DNA was found on Daugherty's body and a pink wash cloth, his fingerprint on the lid of her toilet.

Defense attorney JD Schmid argued that Carbo had consensual sex with Daugherty, used her bathroom and left, and that someone else — someone driving the dark green truck that witnesses saw in her driveway — killed her.

In his closing argument on Monday, prosecutor Jon Holets noted that the only DNA at the scene belonged to Carbo and Daugherty, including the skin beneath her fingernails.

Carbo's attorneys have had a different suspect in mind for Daugherty's murder, but their motion for an alternate perpetrator defense was denied by the court. Schmid dropped hints to the suspect's identity several times in the trial that started just more than a week ago.

Investigators learned about Carbo in 2020 with help from a genealogical database. They took a bag they saw him toss into his garbage can and made a DNA match. Carbo first denied having sex with Daugherty but later recanted. At the time of Daugherty's death, he was a drinker who sometimes blacked out. He didn't remember having sex with her, he said in a follow-up with interview with investigators.

Carbo was also linked to vomit found in Daugherty's yard near a circle of matted grass in the backyard of her two-bedroom, early 1970s ranch-style home on a corner lot of a quiet street.

The case had little movement for the past 36 years. Carbo was arrested in 2020 and has been in the St. Louis County jail since then.

"The county attorney's office is pleased with the courage and commitment to justice shown by the jury, despite the age of the case," St. Louis County Attorney Kimberly Maki said in a news release.

Daugherty's friends and family and Carbo's supporters both were in the courtroom for much of the trial. There were sounds of sniffles from both sides when the verdict was read. Afterward, Carbo's small circle hugged outside of the courtroom. They declined to comment.

A pack of Daugherty's friends and family also hugged outside the courtroom — then were whisked away to the prosecutors' offices at the courthouse. They did not offer a statement but rather advice.

"Never give up," Dave Haggard said as he left the courthouse. His wife, Gina Haggard, Daugherty's daughter, was by his side.

This isn't over, according to Carbo's attorneys.

"We're disappointed," Schmid said. "Mr. Carbo is innocent, and we do intend to appeal."