Police suspect serial killer in North Carolina

[crimeshot1]

Police suspect serial killer in North Carolina


updated 12:37 p.m. EDT, Mon July 13, 2009



(CNN) -- Police are investigating whether a North Carolina country road may have become the dumping ground for a serial killer, a man one woman believes could have given her a terrifying ride she will never forget.


Jackie Nikelia Thorpe's body was found along Seven Bridges Road in August 2007.

Since May 2005, the remains of five women have been found near Seven Bridges Road outside Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The road snakes northeast out of town into rural Edgecombe County.

Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley Jr. thinks the women's deaths are related.
"They seem to have some connection," he said.

Lanessa Williams of Rocky Mount thinks she narrowly missed joining the ranks of the slain women, saying she is not sure whether a man who offered her a ride to a friend's house last year is responsible for their deaths.

The longer the two drove, the more she felt a sense of danger, said Williams, 38. The man -- whom she described as thin and African-American, with a mustache and glasses -- rarely spoke and "looked crazy."

"He kept on going, and he rode through lights, and he wouldn't let me get out," she said. Eventually, her fears were confirmed when he demanded sex. "He told me that if I didn't do what he wanted me to do, he was going to kill me and throw me in the river."

The man eventually stopped his truck in a dark wilderness area, she said. When he got out, she ran away.

"I laid in a ditch and stayed there for a while," she said. "He was riding around looking for me."

Police are talking to Williams about her experience. She told authorities she noticed something strange: The large block letters saying "Chevrolet" on the back of the man's truck appeared to be painted on.

All five of the slain women were African-American, authorities said. Four lived in Rocky Mount, about 55 miles northeast of the state capital, Raleigh.

According to the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office, they were:

• Melody Wiggins, 29, whose body was found May 29, 2005.
• Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35, whose body was found August 17, 2007, behind a house on Seven Bridges Road.
• Ernestine Battle, 50, whose remains were found in a wooded area on the road March 13, 2008.
• Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28, whose remains were discovered March 7, 2009.
• Jarneice Latonya Hargrove, 31, whose skeletal remains were found June 29, 2009, in the woods off the road.

Manley said it appears that the women "suffered a similar death," but authorities are not divulging further details, including the cause of the deaths.

Edgecombe County Sheriff James L. Knight is leading the investigation, working with Rocky Mount police and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The three agencies have created a joint task force to investigate the unsolved killings.

Knight is asking the public to be vigilant. "Watch for vehicles if they are on a path or stop along that roadway, and give us a call."

Anyone with more information is asked to call the sheriff's office at (252) 641-7911.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/13/...lina.slayings/

[Bailey]

Five bodies found so far
BY THOMASI MCDONALD - Staff Writer
Published: Thu, Aug. 20, 2009 02:00AM
Modified Wed, Aug. 19, 2009 09:26PM


RALEIGH -- FBI profilers will look into every detail of the crime scenes to tell the story of who, and maybe why, someone raped and killed five African-American women before leaving their bodies to decompose in rural Edgecombe County.

"They will look at whether an arm has been left up or down, or was a hand placed over the chest, to try and reach a conclusion about what sort of person would do it," said Frank Perry, former special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Raleigh.

The profilers have joined a task force formed in late June to investigate the slayings. Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley said they needed the FBI's expertise and resources to analyze the evidence. The women's remains were found badly decomposed. In several instances, little more than bones and leathery tissue remained.



While those law enforcement officials working the case would not speak about details of their investigation, Perry explained in general terms how such an investigation would normally proceed.

The federal profilers will analyze the details of each crime scene for evidence that could link them to a single, serial killer. They also will look for evidence to disprove the serial killer theory, he said.

All of the victims were poor, living on the margins of society. Some, family members told police, peddled sex to finance their drug addictions.

The first victim, Melody Wiggins, 29, was found by police May 29, 2005, on Noble Mill Pond Road. She died of blunt force trauma to the head and had been cut and stabbed repeatedly. Her body was partially covered by tree limbs, and the medical examiner wondered if she was dragged or had run from a field into the woods where her body was found.

The partially skeletal, nude remains of Jackie Thorpe Wiggins, 35, were found Aug. 17, 2007, in a trash heap behind a burned-out crack house. An arm and skull had been separated from the body. The medical examiner did not determine a cause of death.

One year later, on March 13, 2008, the remains of Ernestine Battle, 50, were found face down in the woods. Her remains were unclothed. No cause of death was determined by the medical examiner who wrote that the likely cause was homicidal violence.

The remains of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28, were found March 7 by several people riding all-terrain vehicles through the woods off Marriot Farm Road. Someone had dragged her into a field along nearby Marriot Road and strangled her. Her remains were lying face up, arms raised above the head, according to autopsy reports.

The skeletal remains of the latest victim, Jarniece Latonya "Sunshine" Hargrove, 31, were discovered June 29 by a farmer working in a field. The farmer told police he found Hargrove's body just inside a wooded area off Seven Bridges Road. The medical examiner's office has not yet released a cause of death.

Rocky Mount police also discovered the remains of a sixth African-American woman in February on Melton Road. Investigators are not sure if the case is related to the other five deaths, said Capt. Laura Fahnestock with the Rocky Mount police.

Three other women are missing from Rocky Mount and are feared to be victims. Christine Boone, 43, has been missing since Aug. 25, 2006, Rocky Mount police said.

"The profilers are looking for psychological clues and cues," said Perry, who now works with the newly founded Foundation for Ethics in Public Service, Inc., which investigates public corruption.

Perry said they will try to determine from the crime scene details what type of person would commit such brutal crimes, and search for clues to a motive such as "some sort of psychological revenge against someone in their past."

Clues found at the crime scenes and pictures taken when the bodies were first discovered could even tell the profilers the age and marital status of the person responsible, he explained.

The profilers take a very clinical approach to the investigation. Their findings, based on years of training and experience, are often remarkable, Perry said.

"They can go into a room, see what has been disturbed, what pictures were touched, what valuables were left behind and tell you what type of person committed the crime."

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1654591.html

[Bailey]

The discovery of the remains of Melody Wiggins, Jackie Thorpe, Ernestine Battle, Taraha Nicholson, Jarniece Hargrove and an unidentified woman have prompted authorities to form a special task force to determine if the deaths are related.


Edgecombe slain women

Posted: Today at 3:29 p.m.
Updated: 10 minutes ago

Rocky Mount, N.C. — Authorities looking into the unsolved slayings of at least five Rocky Mount women over the past four years could be working a possible lead.

That's according to Pepita Hargrove, who's sister Jarniece Latonya Hargrove, 31, was found in June in a wooded area off Seven Bridges Road, near Rocky Mount.

Hargrove said Friday that a family friend told her investigators have been asking people about the last person who might have been seen with her sister.

"(The friend) said that they were going around showing a photo of a gentleman, and he was a black guy," Hargrove said. "I asked about what he looked like and they said he was a slim black guy, older guy."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/5891287/
WATCH VIDEO
Family of victim claim police may have lead

Hargrove said that an agent with the State Bureau of Investigation denied her request to see the picture.

"All she told me was that she had some suspects," Hargrove said. "She wouldn't tell me how. She just said that once an arrest is made they would notify the family."

Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight declined to discuss details about the case Friday but said that the investigation is progressing. Investigators have generally remained quiet about the investigation.

A special task force consisting of Edgecombe sheriff's deputies, Rocky Mount police officers and SBI agents are looking into the slayings and whether they might be linked.

Special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Behavioral Analysis Unit are also working on the case.

Hargrove's remains, as well as those of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28; Melody LaShae Wiggins, 29; Ernestine Battle, 50, and Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35, were all found in the same region of Edgecombe County since 2005. A sixth body discovered in February has yet to be identified.

Each of the known victims was black, from Rocky Mount, had a history of drugs and had a history of run-ins with the law. Each was reported missing before their bodies were discovered.

Three other women with similar descriptions and backgrounds – Christine Marie Boone, Renee Joyce Durham and Yolanda Renee Lancaster – remain missing.

Meanwhile, New Jersey nonprofit Kefalas-Pinto Foundation is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the slayings of five Rocky Mount women found over the past four years.

The organization also donated $10,000 to the Rocky Mount-based community group Murdered or Missing Sisters after its founder saw the story in the news.

"I really want to say thank you," Pepita Hargrove, said Friday. "You know at least somebody cares."

MOMS, made up of friends and family members of the slain and missing women, says it will use the donation to pay for billboards in the Rocky Mount area, including one near a local mall.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5889502/

[Bailey]

The discovery of the remains of Melody Wiggins, Jackie Thorpe, Ernestine Battle, Taraha Nicholson, Jarniece Hargrove and an unidentified woman have prompted authorities to form a special task force to determine if the deaths are related.

Edgecombe slain women

Posted: 28 minutes ago
Updated: 8 minutes ago

Rocky Mount, N.C. — Authorities investigating the unsolved slayings of at least five Rocky Mount women and the disappearances of three others have planned a news conference for Tuesday.

A secretary for Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight, however, would not say Monday what would be discussed at the 2:30 p.m. event.

Authorities, including the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office, Rocky Mount Police Department and State Bureau of Investigation, have said very little about the case, including whether they might be linked.

The remains of Jarniece Latonya Hargrove, 31, Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28; Melody LaShae Wiggins, 29; Ernestine Battle, 50, and Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35, have been found in the same region of Edgecombe County since 2005. A sixth body discovered in February has yet to be identified.

Hargrove's sister, Pepita Hargrove, told WRAL News last week that she was informed by a family friend that investigators have a photo of a possible suspect but that she has not seen it. An SBI agent denied her request, she said.

Knight would not comment on the claim but said the investigation was progressing.

Each of the known victims was black, from Rocky Mount and had a history of drug use and had run-ins with the law. Each was reported missing before their bodies were discovered.

Three other women with similar descriptions and backgrounds – Christine Marie Boone, Renee Joyce Durham and Yolanda Renee Lancaster – remain missing.

A New Jersey nonprofit group is offering a $10,000 reward is for information leading to an arrest in the cases.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5906155/

[Bailey]

Edgecombe County Sheriff James L. Knight, left, announces that authorities arrested Antwan Maurice Pittman in the homicide of Taraha Shenice Nicholson. She was reported missing Feb. 22, and her body was found March 7.

The sheriff won't say whether Antwan Pittman is a suspect in other killings. The bodies of 5 more women have been found.
BY THOMASI MCDONALD - Staff Writer
Published: Wed, Sep. 02, 2009 04:57AM
Modified Wed, Sep. 02, 2009 05:59PM

ROCKY MOUNT-- Police charged a convicted sex offender Tuesday with killing one of six women found dead over the past four years, their bodies dumped in the desolate, swampy woods about 60 miles northeast of Raleigh.

On Tuesday, a multi-agency task force charged Antwan Maurice Pittman, an inmate at the Nash County jail, with murder in the death of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28.

Pittman's arrest came nearly two months after the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office, Rocky Mount police and the State Bureau of Investigation formed the task force in June to investigate the homicides of the six women, whose bodies were found among the woodlands, corn and tobacco fields in a sparsely populated area of Edgecombe County, north of Rocky Mount between Battleboro and Whitakers.




Edgecombe County Sheriff James L. Knight, flanked by members of the task force at a news conference Tuesday, would not comment on whether Pittman, 31, is implicated in the other deaths. He said little else Tuesday after announcing that Pittman had been charged with Nicholson's death.

"I have no other comments due to this being an ongoing investigation," Knight said. "Hopefully, we will be able to answer more questions at a later date."

Pittman was convicted in 1994 for taking indecent liberties with a 2-year-old child. He served three years in prison, according to the state sex-offender registry.

The one-story, red brick home on Daniels Avenue where Pittman lived for three years following his release from prison is less than four miles from Seven Bridges Road where four of the women were found and even closer to Marriot Farm Road, where Nicholson's remains were found on March 7.

Pittman was arrested Tuesday at the Nash County Detention Center where he had been in custody since Aug. 12 under $15,200 bail after being charged with failing to register as a sex offender, driving while impaired, driving while his license was revoked and having no operator's license, according to Sgt. T.R. Lamm of the Nash County Sheriff's Office.

He is being held without bail at the Edgecombe County jail in Tarboro, according to police.

The state sex offender registry lists Pittman's last known address as 219 Anderson St. Several windows were open at the home Tuesday afternoon, but no one answered the door of the forlorn, wooden home with its tin roof and crumbling concrete steps near downtown Rocky Mount.

Families emotional

All of the victims were African-American, poor and living on the margins of society. Some, family members told police, peddled sex to finance their drug addictions.

Investigators began notifying the victims' families about Pittman's arrest about 12:30p.m. Tuesday. Several family members, including the mother of Taraha Nicholson, showed up at the Edgecombe sheriff's office for the news conference after finding out about Pittman's arrest from news reports.

Pepita Hargrove, the sister of victim Jarniece "Sunshine" Hargrove, said that she didn't know whether Pittman killed her sister but that she feels relieved by his arrest.

"When I asked the sheriff if this man was responsible for the other murders, the sheriff said 'no comment,'" Hargrove said. "I'm hoping he's the one. If it's someone else -- if he's not the one -- I want the one who's responsible found."

After Hargrove disappeared in early May, her mother, Patsy Hargrove, looked for her daughter in nearby places.

"She kept telling us to look under the steps of the house," Eunetta Whitaker, Jarniece Hargrove's sister in-law, said Tuesday. "She told us to look around the trailer park. Look over by the women's prison. She kept saying she felt her. 'I just feel her trying to get home.'"

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1671585.html

[Bailey]

By ALYSIA PATTERSON - Associated Press Writer
Published: Sat, Sep. 05, 2009 02:05PM
Modified Sat, Sep. 05, 2009 02:05PM




ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. -- Neighbors of a man accused of killing one of six women found dead on the outskirts of rural Rocky Mount say he kept mostly to himself, but many are convinced he's innocent.

Antwan Maurice Pittman, 31, was charged with first-degree murder Monday in the death of 29-year-old Taraha Shenice Nicholson who was found strangled, her body dumped down a rural stretch of road where five other women have been found dead. Nicholson, like most of the slain women, had a history of drug abuse and prostitution.

The Edgecombe County sheriff formed a task force with the State Bureau of Investigation and asked the FBI to consult after the sixth body was discovered in June.



Neighbors in Pittman's run-down neighborhood in Rocky Mount, about 50 miles east of Raleigh, said they don't know Pittman well, but they're skeptical of police.

"I wouldn't even believe he killed the first one," said 56-year-old neighbor Leroy Silver from a yard sale in his backyard, just around the corner from the house where Pittman lived with his mother and girlfriend. "I would see him around - he's just a normal person."

Other neighbors sifting through card tables filled with glassware and old T-shirts jumped in to speculate that the murder was pinned on Pittman and that the police have no evidence. "They're just assuming!" one woman shouted before asking the price of a fishing rod.

Other neighbors say they're scared because they think the real killer is still out there and three women are still missing.

"I don't think that boy ever had a car," added Silver, wondering how Pittman could have picked up Nicholson and dumped her body on the outskirts of town without a car.

Silver's wife, 49-year-old Charlene Silver, agrees. People around here don't trust the police, she said, recounting a time she says she was thrown in jail because she resembled a police suspect. Counting out a fist-full of dollar bills - proceeds from her yard sale - she asked, "Where is the evidence?"

The sheriff's office declined to comment on Pittman's arrest or the investigations into the other homicides.

Thomas Moore, Pittman's court-appointed defense attorney, said the case is in the initial stages and he knows "next to nothing.

"He seems to be very scared, just like anybody would be in that situation," Moore said of his client.

Gloria Pittman, the suspect's mother, came to her front screen door but said she had no comment about her son. Pittman's uncle, seated on the front porch, said he knows his nephew didn't do it because "he's too scared."

Pittman is a registered sex offender, convicted in November 1994 of taking indecent liberties with a 2-year-old. He spent about 16 months in prison and was released in April 1997. He has also been arrested in years past on misdemeanor charges such as simple assault, larceny, and trespassing and resisting a public officer.

From May 2008 until he was fired in July, Pittman worked at a Perdue Foods plant in Lewiston. According to Perdue spokeswoman Julie DeYoung, Pittman worked in the production line. Plant work would have involved slaughtering live chickens, cutting them up, deboning them and preparing them for the consumer.

Nicholson was reported missing in February and her decomposing body was found less than a month later. An autopsy report identified abrasions indicating her body had been dragged, a fractured bone in her throat and a toxicology test positive for cocaine. She was wearing only a bra, pulled up to her neck, and a pair of white socks.

Dr. Michael Teague, a former forensic psychologist for the state, dismissed the notion that police charged Pittman on "flimsy evidence," but he added that, "Everybody is so hooked on CSI, they think we have this 'Star Wars' technology, but sometimes when you've got just smoldering bones, it's pretty hard to put something together."

Rake Shell, who lived in the same apartment building with Pittman for about two months over the summer, said, "He didn't talk to nobody else over here. He was just straight up a turtle in his shell."

Shell said Pittman didn't drive a car or have a job and lived in an apartment with several other people, including his girlfriend, with no lights and no furniture. "They were the only ones we didn't know too much about," he said.

Officials won't say if Pittman is a suspect in the other murders, but victims' family members are hoping for closure. "We're praying to God this is the one that did all this," said Patsy Hargrove, mother of Jarneice Hargrove whose body, found in June, was the last one discovered. "I do believe it's a serial killer ... I think it's one man," Hargrove said.

Teague agrees with her. "It would be highly coincidental" to dump Nicholson's body in the same spot as all the other victims, he said. "I'm not sure (the killer) is sophisticated enough to say, 'I'm going to throw the cops off and put the body where all those other bodies were dumped.'"

Pittman is being held without bond in the Central Prison in Raleigh. A probable cause hearing is set for September 16.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/cri...y/1675837.html

[Bailey]

Posted: Today at 1:04 p.m.
Updated: Today at 1:32 p.m.

Rocky Mount, N.C. — An Edgecombe County grand jury indicted Antwan Maurice Pittman on one-count of first degree murder on Tuesday.

Pittman, 31, whose last known address was 219 Anderson St. in Rocky Mount, was charged last week in the death of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 29.

Nicholson was reported missing to Rocky Mount police on Feb. 22, and her remains were found March 7 on Marriott Road in a wooded area off Seven Bridges Road. An autopsy found she most likely was strangled.

nvestigators have been probing the deaths of Nicholson and four other African-American women – Jarniece Latonya Hargrove, 31, Ernestine Battle, 50, Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35, and Melody LaShae Wiggins, 29 – who each were reported missing before their remains were found in rural Edgecombe County. A sixth set of remains, yet to be identified, was found in Rocky Mount in February.

Authorities have also been investigating the disappearance of three Rocky Mount women with similar descriptions and backgrounds.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5958773/

[Bailey]

BY THOMASI MCDONALD - STAFF WRITER
Published: Wed, Sep. 09, 2009 02:10PM
Modified Wed, Sep. 09, 2009 02:18PM




A spokeswoman with the Johnston County Sheriff's Office confirmed today that the department dispatched a search and rescue team to rural Battleboro this morning to aid in the search for one, possibly three women who have been reported missing.

The search comes a little over a week after the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office charged a convicted sex offender with the death of one of six women whose bodies have been found in the swampy woodlands of rural Edgecombe County, about 60 miles northeast of Raleigh.

The man, Antwan Maurice Pittman, 31, has been charged with the strangulation death of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28, whose body was found in a wooded area along Marriot Farm Road.



The six women were the victims of homicides dating back to 2005.

A multi-agency task force that was formed at the request of the Edgecombe Sheriff's Office has been investigating the murders since late June. Edgecombe Sheriff James L. Knight has not said whether Pittman has been implicated in the other women's deaths.

Knight could not be immediately reached for comment today.

Three more women in the area have been reported missing since 2007. Christine Marie Boone, 43, was reported missing on Jan. 16 of that year. Months later, on June 17, Joyce Renee Durham, 46, disappeared. Last year, on March 30, Yolanda Renee "Snap" Lancaster, 37, was reported missing by the Rocky Mount Police Department.

The Johnston County search and rescue team left to search an area where the women were found along Seven Bridges and Marriott Farm roads, north of Rocky Mount, Tammy Amaon, a sheriff's spokeswoman said this afternoon.

"They left this morning at the request of the Edgecombe sheriff," Amaon said.

Amaon said she did not know if the search team was called to look for the specific remains of one or more persons.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1681736.html

[Bailey]

The discovery of the remains of Melody Wiggins, Jackie Thorpe, Ernestine Battle, Taraha Nicholson, Jarniece Hargrove and an unidentified woman have prompted authorities to form a special task force to determine if the deaths are related.


Posted: Today at 6:20 p.m.
Updated: Today at 6:32 p.m.

Rocky Mount, N.C. — Three months after a Rocky Mount man was charged in the slaying of a missing woman, family members of other victims say they still have no resolution in their cases.

"It's slow, and it's frustrating," said Jackie Wiggins, whose daughter, Jackie Thorpe, was found dead Aug. 17, 2007, behind a house on Seven Bridges Road in a rural part of Edgecombe county.

Thorpe, 35, is one of six women all matching similar profiles found dead over the past four years – five in rural Edgecombe County, one in Rocky Mount.

Three other women remain missing, and their cases are also among those that a special task force of local, state and federal investigators are looking at to determine if they are linked.

On Sept. 1, authorities arrested Antwan Maurice Pittman on a first-degree murder charge in the strangling death of one of those women, Taraha Shenice Nicholson.

Authorities have not named him a suspect in any of the other cases.

Family members of the victims and the missing say they had hoped the arrest would shed light on the other cases.

"It seems like it's getting harder and harder every day," said Juray Tucker, whose daughter, Yolanda Lancaster, was reported missing in February. "Right now, they can't tie (Pittman) to anything else. That's all they'll tell us."

Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight has refused to comment about whether Pittman is a suspect or person of interest in any of the other Edgecombe cases.

Rocky Mount police, who have jurisdiction over the three missing persons cases and the murder case of Elizabeth Smallwood, say he is being considered a person of interest.

"Antwan Pittman is not a specific suspect with evidence tying to our three missing person cases and Elizabeth Smallwood, but that doesn't mean we are not looking at him," Rocky Mount police Capt. Laura Fahnestock said.

She added that the cases remain a high priority for investigators and that they are reviewed each week.

"At this point, however, all of our leads have been exhausted," Fahnestock said.

For family members of the victims, that's not what they want to hear either.

"I'm not at ease with (Pittman) being locked up," Wiggins said. "'Ms. Wiggins, we have definitely got the person who killed your daughter. We have enough evidence to proceed and charge him.' That's what I need."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/6554256/