Arrests made in case of murdered sailor | News | Berkeley Independent

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Arrests made in case of murdered sailor

Published Tuesday, July 20, 2010 9:31 AM

By Jim Tatum
Berkeley Independent

photo provided

James Allen Horton

photo provided

Konnie Jan Glidden

James Allen Horton was just 22 years old when he was murdered in 1992.

Nearly two decades later, it looks like justice may have caught up with the young sailor’s killers.

The Missoula County, Montana, Sheriff’s Department and Naval Criminal Investigative Services agents arrested Charles Welty, 38, on July 12 in connection with the case, KPAX TV in Missoula reported. According to that report, Welty admitted that he and an accomplice sexually assaulted, beat, and shot Horton.

A second suspect, Thomas Solheim, 53, of Montauk, N.J. was arrested July 13.

A Berkeley County woman was the third person arrested in connection.

Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office PIO Dan Moon said Konnie Jan Glidden, 38, of Goose Creek, was arrested by the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Thursday July 15. She will be charged with murder, and a bond hearing was held last week.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service had re-opened the case, which shocked Berkeley County nearly 20 years ago, in November of 2009. NCIS officials have declined to comment further, saying the case is ongoing.

Horton, a sailor assigned to the Navy minesweeper the USS Exultant, was last seen the night of Oct. 30, 1992.

Horton was seen at a bar called “Puzzles/American Sports Bar,” which was located on the Charleston Naval Shipyard, then later at a bar then known as “Rockin’ Johns,” on Montague Avenue in North Charleston.

His body was found Nov. 14, barely two weeks later, in Berkeley County off Old Lighthouse Road near Summerville, lying facedown in four feet of water with his hands tied behind his back.

An autopsy revealed several blunt force trauma wounds to the head and a gunshot wound in the chest. Evidence also indicated Horton knew his attacker.

Investigators initially were able to collect traces of DNA from several pieces of evidence, but it is only in recent years that DNA science has advanced to the point that those small samples could be analyzed and identified, using a process known as “Touch DNA.”

In fact, it was such technological advances, as well as other leads, that led to the case being reopened, NCIS officials said in November.

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