A quiet block in Charlotte’s Providence Division took a painful step toward closure this week as a 21-year-old man admitted in court to killing his 79-year-old adoptive father, ending a missing-person case that had gripped the neighborhood since July 2024. Neighbors first sounded the alarm when the elder Dunlap disappeared, and authorities later said he was found behind his home, with his son arrested the following day.
Police identified the victim as Fred Willie Dunlap and the defendant as Desmond Elijah Dunlap after Fred was reported missing on July 23 and located July 24 “from an apparent trauma” in the 1000 block of Bobby Lane, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. CMPD said detectives found and arrested Desmond on July 25 and charged him with murder, financial transaction card theft and obtaining property by false pretense. In its release, the department also urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers or the Homicide Unit.
Desmond Dunlap entered a guilty plea on Wednesday, WCNC reported. The station noted that full plea documents and a sentencing date were not immediately available, and related court records could not be accessed online at the time of publication…