A 23-year-old woman has been charged with murder after police found a 26-year-old woman dead inside an east Charlotte apartment, a case that came to light after a DoorDash driver making a delivery noticed a foul odor and authorities were called to check on the home.
The case quickly drew wide attention because of how it surfaced and what investigators later said they found. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said officers responded shortly after 4:30 p.m. March 10 to the 4300 block of Central Avenue for a welfare check and found a female victim dead at the scene. By Thursday, police had identified her as Evelin Carolina Enamorado-Cisnado and said they had arrested Lhis Birito Costa, 23, on a murder charge. Court details reported by local outlets added a grim sequence: the body had been hidden in a closet, wrapped in towels and blankets, and prosecutors said the suspect admitted shooting the victim after learning she was involved with someone else.
Police have released only a narrow official timeline, but the broader picture emerged through court coverage and local reporting. Officers were sent to the apartment complex off Central Avenue after concern was raised at the residence. According to court documents described by WCNC and WSOC-TV, a DoorDash driver who came to the apartment noticed a strong odor. The driver was then allegedly told there was a dead person inside, though public reports have not made clear who said that. When officers entered the residence, they found Enamorado-Cisnado’s body inside a closet. Local court reporting said the body had begun decomposing and had been covered with blankets and towels. That detail turned what began as a routine welfare check into a homicide scene. CMPD said homicide detectives and crime scene investigators responded, began collecting evidence and opened a full murder investigation.
By the next day, detectives had identified Costa as the suspect and took her into custody. CMPD said Costa was arrested March 11, interviewed by homicide detectives and then transferred to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office on a murder charge. In her first court appearance Thursday, prosecutors laid out the motive they believe drove the killing. According to local television coverage of the hearing, Costa told investigators she and Enamorado-Cisnado had been in a relationship and that she shot her after finding out the victim was seeing someone else. Police have not publicly released the alleged weapon, the exact time of the shooting or how long the body remained in the apartment before officers arrived. Those gaps leave some of the most basic timing questions unresolved, even as the case against Costa appears to rest heavily on what prosecutors say she told investigators.
The facts known so far point to a deeply personal killing rather than a random attack. Public reporting says the two women had dated, and family statements suggest the relationship had ended or was ending before the shooting. In a social media tribute cited by People, Enamorado-Cisnado’s aunt said her niece had not wanted to continue the relationship. That family account fits with the motive described in court, though it has not yet been tested at trial. Authorities have not publicly said whether there had been earlier police calls involving the pair, whether neighbors heard gunfire or an argument, or whether detectives recovered messages or digital records that show how the confrontation escalated. For now, the public version of the case is built on three pieces: a welfare check, a hidden body and an alleged confession tied to jealousy and a breakup.
The setting added to the shock. The apartment is in a busy east Charlotte corridor along Central Avenue, an area better known for traffic, stores and apartment turnover than for a homicide that would draw national attention. Police did not find the victim in an open room or outside where a crime would have been immediately obvious. Instead, court accounts say she had been placed in a closet and covered, which suggests an effort to conceal the death after it happened. That concealment matters both legally and emotionally. For detectives, it may help establish intent and conduct after the killing. For the victim’s relatives, it deepened the cruelty of the case. The family’s public comments have centered not only on the loss itself but on the idea that Enamorado-Cisnado was left hidden inside the apartment while the outside world went on, until a delivery driver noticed something was wrong.
Family members have also made clear that the case reaches beyond Charlotte. In the public mourning that followed, relatives said Enamorado-Cisnado was from Honduras and asked for help returning her body there. That detail shifted the story from a local homicide brief to something larger: a young woman killed far from home, with family now trying to manage grief, logistics and international burial arrangements at the same time. People reported that her aunt described her as harmless and said the family was devastated by the way she died. Those comments did not add to the criminal case itself, but they gave the victim a clearer place in the story. She was no longer only the unnamed woman police first found during a welfare check. She became a daughter, niece and loved one whose death created pain stretching across borders.
Procedurally, the case is still in its early stage. Costa has been charged with murder, but there has been no public trial record yet laying out the evidence in full. It was not clear in the reports reviewed Monday whether she had entered a plea or retained an attorney to speak publicly on her behalf. Local outlets said she was held without bond after her initial court appearance. That means the next important phase will likely come through formal court filings, future hearings and any release of additional evidence by prosecutors or police. Investigators may still clarify when the shooting happened, what evidence tied Costa to the killing beyond her alleged statements and whether anyone else was present at the apartment before officers arrived. Those details often take shape only after warrants, affidavits and discovery records become public.
The case has also drawn attention because of the ordinary event that exposed it. It was not a patrol stop, a missing-person alert or a neighbor reporting gunfire that led police to the apartment. It was a delivery. A driver arrived, smelled something unusual and set in motion the call that brought officers to the scene. That detail gives the story its disturbing edge, but it also explains why the case moved so quickly into public view. The discovery did not happen through a long search. It happened in the middle of routine city life, at the doorstep of an apartment, because one person paused long enough to recognize that something was wrong. Investigators have not publicly identified the driver, and the driver’s account has appeared only through court descriptions and family statements, but that role remains central to the timeline as now understood.
As of Monday, Costa remained charged with murder, Enamorado-Cisnado had been identified by police, and detectives had not publicly filled in all of the unanswered details around the killing. The next public milestone is likely to be a further court hearing or a police update that explains more about the shooting, the evidence and the timeline inside the apartment.