Suspect will be charged with the 1998 murder of 13-year-old Christina Williams.

Nearly 20 years after 13-year-old Christina Williams went missing during an early evening walk with the family dog in her Fort Ord neighborhood, Monterey County District Attorney Dean D. Flippo is ready to bring murder and kidnapping charges against a suspect.

The death penalty could be on the table, Flippo announced on Thursday at a press conference in Salinas.

“This particular case really touched a raw nerve in this community and it has been on people’s minds,” Flippo said. “One of the themes we are really putting out there is that law enforcement doesn’t quit. They don’t quit. They keep digging.”

As Assistant District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni read the charges against 56-year-old suspect Charles Holifield, a woman identified as a Williams family member sat quietly sobbing in a chair to the side of the room, holding the hand of Pam Patterson, a county victim assistance advocate. The family member declined to address reporters.

The charges to be filed are first-degree murder with special allegations for kidnapping and special allegations of lewd acts on a child, Pacioni said.

Holifield is currently in Valley State Prison in Chowchilla where he is serving a third-strike sentence of 25 years to life for attempted kidnapping and making criminal threats against a woman in September 1998. His prior offenses include forcible rape, kidnapping and assault with intent to commit rape.

The District Attorney’s office plans to formally serve Holifield with the charges on Friday, April 14, and begin the process of bringing him back to Monterey County to stand trial in the murder of Williams.

The young teen went missing on June 12, 1998. Her mother became alarmed when the dog returned home, still on a leash, with Williams nowhere to be found.

Despite an intensive search effort by multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and NCIS, Williams remained missing until her remains were found in a remote area of Fort Ord seven months later.

Pacioni says Holifield was a suspect “almost from the beginning.” There was not enough evidence to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt.

But DNA has changed that reasoning for prosecutors. Flippo declined to provide details about the DNA evidence, saying only it was “strong” evidence, and that they were withholding further information until trial.

The case was originally investigated by the Presidio of Monterey Police Department, which within days was joined by the FBI, local NCIS, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement agencies. The FBI continued investigating the case for 19 years.

In 2016 the Monterey County Peninsula Cold Case Project team, made up a prosecutor and investigator from the DA’s office, a special agent from the FBI, and local law enforcement officers serving on the Peninsula Regional Violence Narcotics Team (PRVNT), as well as a Homeland Security special agent, picked up the case and began re-examining evidence from the crime scene.

The team requested that physical evidence be re-tested for DNA. The results, along with other evidence collected over the years, gave the DA’s office enough evidence to proceed, officials said.