Rocky Mount N.C. on edge as 9 women vanish/8 found dead since 2005

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Updated: 5:29 PM Mar 12, 2010

Missing Woman's Remains Found Near Accused Murderer's Old Home

The remains of a woman who went missing four years ago in Eastern Carolina have been found.

Officials say the remains of 43-year-old Christine Boone were found March 5 near a home where Antwan Pittman lived in 2006.
Pittman is charged with killing Taraha Nicholson, whose death is one of six similar cases being investigated by authorities in Eastern Carolina.

According to law enforcement: Boone was reported missing in January 2007. She was last seen August 2006 in Rocky Mount. Her remains were found last week in a wooded area behind 98 Nasturtium Lane in Scotland Neck.

Officials say the home at that address is currently vacant, but they know Pittman lived there in 2006.

The Rocky Mount police department states "We want the public to know that while this case is complex and ongoing, law enforcement is working diligently to resolve this matter. Also, please know that Pittman is mentioned here due to him being in custody for a prior similar case in Edgecombe County and the fact of Boone's skeletal remains being found in close proximity to his known past residence. Pittman was arrested in September 2009 for death of Taraha Nicholson and is in the custody of the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Department."

They are asking anyone with information about Boone's disappearance or death to contact law enforcement.

http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/87506582.html

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  -  3/12/2010
Skeletal remains found in Halifax County have turned out to be one of a string of women missing from Rocky Mount.

Christine Marie Boone, 43, disappeared in 2006. Her remains were found last Friday in a wooded area of Scotland Neck, near the home of Antwan Pittman. He was arrested last year in connection with the murder of one of six Rocky Mount women whose bodies were found in the area.

The victims are Jarnice Hargrove, Melody Wiggins, Ernestine Battle, Jackie Thorpe, Denise Williams, and an unknown person whose remains were found in the same general vicinity.

Two other women, Yolanda Lancaster and Joyce Durham, are still missing, and there is a reward out for information in their cases.

Detectives say it is a complicated case, and they are working hard to solve it.
 
http://www.wcti12.com/PrinterFriendlyNews.asp?STORYNUM=1645691131&recordsource=NEWS2010

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http://www.wral.com/

Warrant links murder suspect to Rocky Mount deaths
A man already charged with first-degree murder in the death of a Rocky Mount woman is also believed to be involved in the deaths of four other women with similar profiles, according to a search warrant obtained by WRAL News on Monday.

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Search Warrant

http://www.wral.com/asset/news/local/2010/03/15/7236977/109904-20100315155031827.pdf

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Skeletal remains found in Edgecombe County

Updated: 11:08 p.m. yesterday

Battleboro, N.C. — WRAL News has learned that skeletal remains were found Saturday off Seven Bridges Road, between Battleboro and Whitakers in Edgecombe County. This is same rural area where the remains of several Rocky Mount women were found dead over the past four years.

Around 1:23 p.m., four-wheeler riders found the skeletal remains approximately 20 yards inside the woods, a news release from the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s office states.

The bodies of Taraha Nicholson, 29, Jarneice Hargrove, 31, Jackie Thorpe, 35, Ernestine Battle, 50, and Melody Wiggins, 29, were all found in fields within a 10-mile radius of one another in Edgecombe County. The body of Christine Boone, 43, was found this month about 20 miles away in Scotland Neck.

Each woman was black, reported missing and had a history of drug use or prostitution. Family members and friends have said that many knew each other.

A special task force of local, state and federal authorities has been investigating the deaths, as well as the disappearances of two other Edgecombe County women, Yolanda Lancaster and Joyce Durham.

Knight said the missing women's families were notified Saturday about the human remains discovery.

“My nerves are just shot,” said Winston Kemp, Durham’s stepfather.

Durham has been missing since June 2007. Kemp said authorities told him that they don't yet know the identification or the cause of death for the skeletal remains found Saturday.

"Is it her or is it not? I don't know," he said.

Lancaster has been missing since February 2009. Authorities said both missing women have similar profiles as the other Rocky Mount women and that they are considering a possible connection.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the slain Rocky Mount women is ongoing.

Authorities have charged Antwan Maurice Pittman, 31, with first-degree murder in Nicholson’s death. But they have been relatively quiet about whether he might be suspected in any of the other deaths.

Records show Pittman also once lived near a wooded area off Seven Bridges Road where remains of three of the slain women were found.

A North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper also arrested Pittman for driving while impaired and driving with a revoked license after finding him along Seven Bridges Road on April 25, 2009 – that same day family members last reported seeing Hargrove, according to the warrant.

Hargrove's remains were found on June 29, 2009, about 200 yards from where the trooper said Pittman was parked.

Thorpe's remains were found Aug. 17, 2007, in the same area along Seven Bridges Road. She had been reported missing in May 2007.

Battle's remains were found in the same area on March 14, 2008. She had been missing since February 2008.

Anyone with information about the slain women or the human remains found Saturday is asked to call the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office at 252-641-7911 or Rocky Mount Crime Stoppers at 252-977-1111.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7314655/

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Identifying remains to take at least a week
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/identifying-remains-take-least-week-18037

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Copyright 2010 Capitol Broadcasting Company
http://www.ncwanted.com/ncwanted_home/image/7322213/

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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7336496/

Authorities identify human remains found in Edgecombe County

Updated: 35 seconds ago

Battleboro, N.C. — Skeletal remains found Saturday in an Edgecombe County area where the bodies of seven other Rocky Mount women were discovered have been identified as a missing Rocky Mount woman, Sheriff James L. Knight said Tuesday.

Roberta Williams, 40, was last seen by a family member in Rocky Mount in spring 2008, authorities said. Williams was not officially reported missing, but concerns surfaced from persons who had not seen her in some time, authorities said.

A cause of death is not known at this time.

Williams' remains were discovered off Seven Bridges Road, between Battleboro and Whitakers.

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Gov calls up troops to search for missing women
Updated at 01:20 PM today
National Guard troops search in Edgecombe County for two missing women

RALEIGH, NC (WTVD) -- North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue has activated the state's National Guard to help search for two missing Rocky Mount women whose cases may be linked to the work of a possible serial killer.

Perdue's office said Edgecombe County Sheriff James L. Knight requested the assistance. Knight's department is part of a regional task force that's investigating the deaths of nine women from around the Rocky Mount area.

“Having more boots on the ground will help law enforcement agencies cover a larger area and speed up search efforts,” Perdue said.

The soldiers will be looking for Yolanda Lancaster, 37, and Joyce Renee Durham, 46. They have not been heard from by their families for months.

About 100 National Guard soldiers began their search on Tuesday. The soldiers are from the 1132nd and 514th military police companies, headquartered out of Rocky Mount and Greenville. Perdue's office said they'd be searching through the end of the week around Seven Bridges road near Whitakers, where the remains of five of the nine women have been found since August 2007.

Latest body identified

March 31, Rocky Mount police said skeletal remains found March 27 were identified as 40-year-old Roberta Williams.

People riding four wheelers off Seven Bridges Road, between Battleboro and Whitakers in Edgecombe County, found Williams about 20 yards inside a tree line.
Related Photos

Edgecombe Co. murder victims and search

View all 29 photos

Williams was last seen in the spring of 2008 by a family member in Rocky Mount. She was never reported missing because she was considered to be a homeless person.

Williams is the ninth woman whose body has been found in and around Rocky Mount - about an hour's drive east of Raleigh - over the past seven years. The bodies of Ernestine Battle, 50, Jarniece Hargrove, 31, Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 29, Jackie Thorpe, 35, Melody Wiggins, 29, Elizabeth Jane Smallwood, 33, and Denise M. Williams, 21, have all been discovered dumped in wooded areas. Investigators said most of the women had a history of drug abuse and prostitution - which likely made them more vulnerable.

The special task force of local, state and federal investigators has been looking into those deaths as well as the death of Christine Boone, 43, who was found about 20 miles away near a mobile home in Scotland Neck, Halifax County.

Man charged in one death

In September 2009, the task force arrested 31-year-old Antwan Maurice Pittman in the killing of Taraha Nicholson. Her body was discovered in March, 2009 near Marriot Farm Road a few miles north of Rocky Mount. The medical examiner said she'd most likely been strangled.

Documents in the case said DNA taken from Nicholson's body matched Pittman.

Pittman currently remains in the Edgecombe County Detention Center charged with first-degree murder.

Pittman has a criminal record. According to the North Carolina sex offender registry, he was convicted in 1994 of taking indecent liberties with a 2-year-old. He was released from prison in April 1997. He was also once charged with loitering for prostitution.

Pittman linked to other deaths

Earlier this month, a search warrant released in the investigation linked Pittman to four other deaths. The document authorized homicide investigators to look for evidence at a Halifax County mobile home where he once lived.

It was near that home that investigators found the body of Christine Boone last month. The search warrant indicated that investigators believe Pittman may have killed Boone in the mobile home.

The warrant also said a NC Highway Patrol trooper found Pittman asleep in a car on the day Jarniece Hargrove disappeared. The car was parked about 200 yards away from where her body was discovered about a month later.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7370605

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Trial delayed for Rocky Mount murder suspect

Posted: 12:10 p.m. today

Tarboro, N.C. — The state on Wednesday delayed the murder trial for a man who is charged in the death of a Rocky Mount woman and is a suspect in the deaths of several others.

Antwan Maurice Pittman, 31, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, whose remains were found March 7, 2009, on Marriott Road in rural Edgecombe County – less than a month after she was reported missing.

Nicholson is one of eight women fitting a similar profile whose remains have been found in Edgecombe and Halifax counties. Authorities have said Pittman is also a suspect in at least five of the other deaths, including two cases in which remains were found over the past few weeks.

His trial was scheduled to start May 3, but District Attorney Robert Evans asked a judge Wednesday to continue the trial indefinitely, saying his office is still reviewing evidence and receiving new information from investigators.

Pittman's attorney, Tommy Moore, said the defense would love nothing more to take the case to trial but that it's clear the case won't be ready by May 3. Attorneys recently received 500 to 600 pages of new discovery.

"In light of new things that have happened in the past few weeks, we expect to get even more discovery," Moore said.

Meanwhile Wednesday, nearly two dozen search teams, including 100 North Carolina National Guard soldiers and teams from Florida and Tennessee, continued combing an area near and along the 13-mile Seven Bridges Road in Edgecombe County for two missing Rocky Mount women – Yolanda Renee Lancaster and Joyce Renee Durham.

The missing women share physical and lifestyle similarities with Nicholson and with seven other women who disappeared from Rocky Mount and were found dead over the past four years.

Authorities recovered Nicholson's remains, as well as those of Jarniece Latonya Hargrove, 31, Roberta Williams, 40, Ernestine Battle, 50, and Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35, along Seven Bridges Road,

Lancaster, 37, was last seen Feb. 5, 2009; Durham, 47, was last seen in June 2007.

Crews also searched near where the remains of Melody LaShae Wiggins, 29, Elizabeth Jane Smallwood, 33, and Christine Marie Boone, 43, were found in Rocky Mount and Scotland Neck.

All of the bodies were found near homes and sites where Pittman lived. According to a search warrant, he was also seen near where Hargrove's body was found the same day she was last seen.

Crews have previously searched in a 1-mile radius of where each body was found, but the latest search is the first massive search of the entire areas, Knight said.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7374794/

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Search turns up nothing

Friday, April 9, 2010
Dozens of soldiers, deputies, police officers and firefighters combed through miles of brush and swampland this week but failed to find two missing Rocky Mount women or any other human remains.

Regardless of what the search uncovered, families of the missing said they were glad to see the effort. Juray Tucker’s daughter, Yolanda Lancaster, is one of the missing women whose backgrounds match those of nine other Rocky Mount women found dead in recent years.
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http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/search-turns-nothing-18450

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Mother of missing woman waits for word

Published: May 8, 2010

TARBORO
For more than a year, Juray Tucker has worn a yellow ribbon on her nursing scrubs. A flier with a photograph of her missing daughter is taped to her car window. Every few hours, Tucker's husband checks their home phone for a message, still hoping she hasn't fallen victim to a possible serial killer.

"I got to be realistic _ whenever the phone rings," Tucker, a 59-year-old nursing assistant, said as she paused and shed tears in the living room of her mobile home. "It's always there. But I still hope and pray that she's alive."

Since 2006, nine African-American women have disappeared near the small central North Carolina city of Rocky Mount. Seven bodies were found along rural roads or in woods outside town, most so decomposed that investigators couldn't tell how they died. At least one of the women was strangled, and all the deaths have been classified as homicides.

Police say they have a suspect in five of the deaths in custody and talk of a possible serial killer. Yet Tucker's daughter is one of two women who have not been found.

For Tucker, this is a time of anguish and waiting that tests her faith and leads her to question her parenting.

"When I'm alone I always think, 'Lord, did I do everything that I could do? Have I done everything that I could do when it comes to her?"' she said.

After the discovery of the latest body, Gov. Beverly Perdue sent the National Guard last month to comb around Rocky Mount.

Tucker's daughter - Yolanda Renee Lancaster, a 37-year-old mother of two - wasn't found, and her mother says that gives her a glimmer of hope even as she agonizes over her disappearance.

She now questions decisions she made raising Yolanda when she was young: boys could not visit the house unsupervised. Her daughter wasn't allowed to go out to the movies at night.

Perhaps she was too strict - maybe her rules pushed Yolanda into taking needless risks, Tucker wondered as she gazed from the living room of her home that houses her grandson's bed and family pictures.

Like other victims, Lancaster had a history of alcohol and drug abuse, habits that Tucker said her daughter developed after she began sneaking out of the house in high school.

"After you do everything that you can do to raise them the right way, when they grow up you got no more say. They choose their own way," Tucker said.

Lancaster disappeared in February 2009 after an argument with her boyfriend, said Tucker, noting the spats were common. But after a few weeks, she said she became worried. Normally, Lancaster would at least call to check on her two young children, whom Tucker has raised since they were infants.

The 11-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy used to ask about their mother. Now the questions have ceased.

"It's hard to explain why she's missing because I don't know why she's missing or why did she just up and leave and didn't contact them," Tucker said.

For Jackie Wiggins, the mother of a woman whose body was found in 2007, the discovery has led to the desire for another answer. "The fact that she was found and identified is some form of closure but to not know who actually would do such a thing is just as hurtful," she said.

In September, authorities arrested Antwan Maurice Pittman and charged him with the first-degree murder of 28-year-old Taraha Shenice Nicholson. Police have said Pittman, a 31-year-old registered sex offender, is a suspect in the deaths of four of the women whose bodies were found, including Wiggins' daughter.

Activists in the community believe that three other victims are linked to the cases of nine discovered and missing women. While police are checking into those three other cases, they are not certain they all are connected.

Pittman's attorney did not immediately return messages left seeking comment.

Pittman's trial was supposed to have begun Monday, but has been indefinitely postponed by a judge at the request of District Attorney Robert Evans. Both the prosecution and the defense said they needed more time to review evidence.

Rocky Mount police Chief John Manley said police periodically meet with families to give them updates.
While there are no immediate plans for another large-scale search, Manley said he doesn't rule one out.

Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight said an investigation continues.

"There's not a week that goes by that we are not working on it," he said.

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/may/08/mother-missing-nc-woman-waits-word/news/

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CNN special to include local serial killings

From Staff Reports

POSTED Friday, November 5, 2010

CNN will air a special report this weekend dubbed “Easy Prey” about serial killers across the United States, including the slayings of the Twin Counties.

Reporters from CNN’s Special Investigations Unit were in the Rocky Mount area this summer speaking with family members of victims linked to a possible serial killer active in the Twin Counties since 2003.

During the special, Jackie Wiggins visits the site for the first time where her daughter, Jackie Nikelia “Nicki” Thorpe, was found. Thorpe’s body was found on Aug. 17, 2007, behind an abandoned residence on Seven Bridges Road three months after she was reported missing.

The episode also will include reports on the “Green River Killer” in Seattle and the “House of Horrors” on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland, as CNN’s Abbie Boudreau investigates why so many serial killers are able to get away with their crimes, victimizing mostly women. The special will air at 8 p.m., 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/cnn-special-include-local-serial-killings-170933

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Updated: 12:16 PM Jan 11, 2011

NEW INFO: Body Found In Edgecombe County Woods
Sheriff James Knight says a hunter found the human remains late Monday afternoon in the woods off of Battleboro-Leggett Road.
Posted: 9:30 AM Jan 11, 2011


Another body has been found in Edgecombe County.

Sheriff James Knight says a hunter found the human remains late Monday afternoon in the woods off of Battleboro-Leggett Road.

Knight says the hunter said he was walking through the woods looking for deer antlers when he discovered what appeared to be human remains. The sheriff says the SBI and the State Medical Examiner's Office has been notified.

A news release says the victim has not been identified.

Battleboro-Leggett Road intersects Seven Bridges Road were the bodies of three women have been found in recent years. In all, seven bodies have been discovered in that area and in nearby Halifax County, and all of those victims were African-American women who had been involved in drugs or prostitution.

Knight says at this time they don't know if the latest discovery is related to the other cases.

http://www.witn.com/news/headlines/BREAKING_NEWS__Body_Found_In_Edgecombe_County_Woods_113269994.html?ref=994

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Updated: 9 minutes ago

Human remains found in Edgecombe County

Tarboro, N.C. — Edgecombe County authorities have notified the families of two missing Rocky Mount women after a set of human remains were found in a rural part of the county on Monday, the sheriff said Tuesday.

Sheriff James Knight said in a news release Tuesday that hunters searching for deer antlers found the body off a path in some woods off Battleboro-Leggett Road near Speights Chapel Road around 4:53 p.m. and called authorities.

Knight said the remains have not been identified and that it was unclear how long they had been in the woods.

Family members of Yolanda Renee Lancaster, 37, and Joyce Renee Durham, 49, were contacted Monday evening about the developments, Knight said.

Lancaster, who has been missing since February 2009, and Durham, last seen in June 2007, are among a group of 10 women at the center of a joint investigation by the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office, the Rocky Mount Police Department and state and federal agencies into whether their disappearances are related to one another.

Over the past five years, eight have turned up dead – many along Seven Bridges Road, a country road lined with fields, woods and an occasional house that stretches 13 miles between the rural Edgecombe communities of Battleboro and Whitakers.

All the women share similar backgrounds and physical appearances, and many frequented Holly Street in Rocky Mount, an area known for drug activity and prostitution. Many of the women knew each other, their families have said.

Authorities have charged Antwan Maurice Pittman in one of the deaths and have named him as a suspect or person of interest in at least five others.

Family members of Lancaster and Durham could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday morning.

But Lancaster’s mother, Juray Tucker, said in an interview in August that she has tried to remain hopeful, even though she knows there is little likelihood that her daughter will be found alive.

“As long as it has been with no word from her, I have to be realistic that there’s a possibility that it can go another way. I’m trying to prepare myself for that. I know you can’t, but I‘ve got to be real. I've got to be real.”

Reporter: Mike Charbonneau
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8918946/

[Lovinlife]

  Rest in Peace, Yolanda 

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8944211/

Edgecombe remains those of missing Rocky Mount woman

Tarboro, N.C. — Remains found this week in rural Edgecombe County were identified Friday as those of a Rocky Mount woman who is one of 10 at the center of an investigation into a suspected serial killer.

Authorities said late Friday that the remains were those of Yolanda Renee Lancaster, 37, who has been missing since February 2009.

Hunters found the body Monday afternoon off a path in some woods off Battleboro-Leggett Road near the Battleboro community and called authorities.

Over the past five years, eight other women with similar backgrounds have turned up dead – many along Seven Bridges Road in the same vicinity where Lancaster’s body was found.

Family members couldn’t be reached for comment Friday evening, but Lancaster’s mother, Juray Tucker, has said that she kept hope but knew there was little likelihood that her daughter would be found alive.

“As long as it has been with no word from her, I have to be realistic that there’s a possibility that it can go another way,” Lancaster said in August. “I’m trying to prepare myself for that. I know you can’t, but I‘ve got to be real. I've got to be real.” (Watch more of Tucker's interview about her daughter.)

Authorities have charged Antwan Maurice Pittman in one of the nine deaths but have identified him as a suspect or person of interest in many of the cases. He was expected to go to trial in May, but the case has been continued indefinitely.

The investigation attracted the attention of Gov. Bev Perdue last April when she ordered the North Carolina National Guard to help search for Lancaster and another woman still missing – Joyce Renee Durham.

“I thought that was awesome,” Tucker said in August. “Even though they didn’t find anything – which was good and a little bit of relief – it was just awesome. My God, they brought out all these people to look for my baby.”

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Updated: September 28, 2011 - 9:43 AM
 DNA Analyst matches Pittman's DNA found in Nicholson's body

WINDSOR, N.C. -- DNA Analyst Sharon Hinton, a State witness, testifed that the DNA "can be no one other than" Antwan Pittmans, or a twin brother.

Hinton analyized the DNA samples found in Taraha Nicholson and on her clothing.  Hinton said she found traces of Nicholson's DNA along with an unknown "profile" in the DNA found inside Nicholson.  She said she was able to match the unknown profile to Pittman after examining Pittman's DNA samples he provided.

 ::snipping2::
31-Year-old Antwan Pittman is charged with the 1st Degree Murder of 28-year-old Taraha Nicholson back in 2009 and is a suspected in the death of eight other women across Edgecombe County.Pittman's trial was moved to Windsor in Bertie County.
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---Previous Story, Pittman Trial Day 1-- at link
http://www2.wnct.com/news/2011/sep/26/26/trial_delayed_for_pittman-ar-12397/

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Updated: 57 minutes ago

Pittman found guilty in missing Rocky Mount woman's death

Windsor, N.C. — After less than an hour of deliberation, a jury on Thursday found an Edgecombe County man guilty of first-degree murder in the strangling death of a missing Rocky Mount woman more than two years ago.

Antwan Maurice Pittman, 33, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.  ::justice2NJ::

"I did not kill that woman," Pittman, sobbing, yelled during his sentencing.

 ::snipping2::

Authorities have said that Pittman is a suspect in at least seven of the other cases, although he's never been charged.
 ::snipping2::
Pittman admitted on the witness stand Wednesday that he paid Nicholson to have sex with him at a hotel but that he dropped her off afterward near a library in Rocky Mount.

Six days later, hunters found Nicholson's body.

Investigators linked Pittman to Nicholson's death through DNA, and prosecutors painted him as a man obsessed with rape and violence who had a history of attacking prostitutes.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10201489/