Cold Case Justice: Identified after 20 years

North Carolina authorities said through advances in forensic science and contacting members of the victims' family trees they were able to determine the woman was the mother of the young male victim.

February 6, 2019

(WYFF/NBC News) Investigators have identified a mother and son found dead at two separate crime scenes more than 20 years ago.

The woman was found dead in Spartanburg County, South Carolina on May 13, 1998, not far from Interstate 85.

Deputies said when the woman was found she was nude with what appeared to be ligature marks around her wrists. The woman was not able to be identified at the time and her death was ruled a homicide.

In December 2018, the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Hillsborough, North Carolina, notified the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office that four months after the woman was found a young male was found dead off an Interstate 85 frontage road.

North Carolina authorities said through advances in forensic science and contacting members of the victims' family trees they were able to determine the woman was the mother of the young male victim.

The woman was identified as Myoung Hwa Cho. The boy was her son, Robert Adam Whitt.

Once the victims were identified investigators were led to the woman's husband and child's father, who is currently in federal prison. After several interviews, he confessed to murdering both, months apart.