How the Media Treat's Black Murder: Several women murdered and missing in N.C case

[Pragmatic]

By Krista Gesaman | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Oct 21, 2009

Gerry Broome / AP

Newsweek Video: Serial Killer's murdering black women; no investigations; no leads
Newsweek Video
How the Media Treat Murder | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com


Diana Nicholson, right, the mother of Taraha Shenice Nicholson is comforted during a news conference at the Edgecombe County Sheriff's office in Tarboro, N.C.

Ten women have been found slain or have been declared missing in Rocky Mount, N.C., in recent years. But the rest of the country hasn't heard about a possible serial killer stalking the young women in this Southern town of 60,000. The latest victim, Elizabeth Jane Smallwood, was identified on Oct. 12. Why have the Rocky Mount homicides been largely ignored?

"When you think about the famous missing-person cases over the last few years it's Chandra Levy, Natalee Holloway, and Laci Peterson," notes Sam Sommers, associate professor of psychology at Tufts University. All these women had a few things in common—they were white, educated, and came from middle-class families.

The victims in Rocky Mount—which residents describe as a "typical Southern town," and is about 40 percent white and more than 50 percent black—were different. They were all African-American, many were poor, and some had criminal histories including drug abuse and prostitution


"If it was someone of a different race, things would have been dealt with the first time around; it wouldn't have taken the fifth or sixth person to be murdered," says Andre Knight, a city-council member and president of the local NAACP chapter.

"All these women knew each other and lived in the same neighborhood; this is the sign of a potential serial killer. When it didn't get the kind of attention it needed, it made the African-American community frustrated."

Police have not officially linked all the murders and disappearances, but community members claim the similarities among the women, their lifestyles, and the location of their bodies make a connection all too obvious.

"If you find two bodies in the same location, this could be the work of the same person or people," says Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley, who would not comment on a connection, but implied the possibility.

Ed. Note (*Why isn't the FBI commenting on this case) end note>

Rumors are running rampant around the town about the identity of the serial killer. There is not much physical evidence, leading some to speculate it's a former law-enforcement officer or someone in the military. Others have deduced that the killer is targeting specific women as a form of revenge for contracting HIV from a prostitute.


Along with:

• Elizabeth Jane Smallwood,
• the murders of Taraha Nicholson, 28,
• Jarniece Hargrove, 31,
• Ernestine Battle, 50,
• Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35,
• Melody Wiggins, 29,
• and Denise Williams, 21, remain unsolved.

Authorities are also searching for:

• Yolanda Lancaster, 37,
• Joyce Renee Durham,
• 46, and Christine Boone, 43.

One man is in custody for the murder of Nicholson, who was the fourth victim, discovered back in 2005. This past September, police charged Antwan Maurice Pittman, 31, with her murder. He is accused of strangling Nicholson and dumping her partially clothed body in the woods. So far, authorities have not linked Pittman to the other murders. "There's a lot of mixed sentiments about Pittman," says Knight, referring to community speculation about whether police have charged the right man.
"In this Information Age, cases get solved through sheer publicity, whether it's an Amber Alert or America's Most Wanted, anyone could have a tip or be a potential source of information," Sommers says.

But the national media did show some interest in the story after it was revealed that five women were murdered in or around the town.

"Nancy Grace called and wanted to have some of us on her show, but before it aired there was a white woman from Georgia that went missing. The Nancy Grace show was canceled," Knight says.

HLN network, which broadcasts Nancy Grace, confirmed that Knight was booked for the show, which was ultimately canceled to profile the disappearance of Kristi Cornwell, a white woman from Blairsville, Ga., who went missing during an evening walk.

Representatives from Nancy Grace told NEWSWEEK,

"The booking was changed due to news that was breaking that day," and emphasized the change had nothing to do with the race of the victim. On Aug. 12, Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees covered the story.

That bit of media exposure brought new resources to the investigation.

Originally, only a small amount of reward money was collected for information about the case. After the story aired on CNN , New Jersey philanthropist Peter Pinto, of the Kefalas-Pinto Foundation, donated $10,000 from a personal trust.

In late September, the city donated an additional $5,000, which was matched by a $5,000 county donation, bringing the amount of reward money to $20,000. If there were no media coverage, there might have been no reward. The money isn't just going to help with the investigation, it's helping the families of the victims, specifically their children.


The money proved to be a blessing for Jurary Tucker, the mother of Yolanda Lancaster, who has been missing since February 2008. "We were able to use some of the money to get [Yolanda's] children ready for school," Tucker says. "They have to wear uniforms to school and they are very expensive; the money came at a good time." Tucker became the primary custodian of her granddaughter and grandson after Lancaster's disappearance.

When Annie Le, a 24-year-old Yale pharmacology graduate student, went missing on Sept. 8, it only took three days for the university to offer a $20,000 reward. In the case of the Rocky Mount women, it took more than six years to raise that same amount of money for 10 women.

Concerned residents of the town tried to promote the case by distributing fliers and purchasing a billboard advertisement featuring the women, but their efforts may have backfired. Mug-shot photographs of the victims, many pictured in orange jumpsuits, sometimes appearing disheveled or under the influence of alcohol or drugs, were used in their efforts. Unlike the images of a smiling Annie Le, these images showed the women during darker times.

"Everyone has a dark side at some point, but you want to put your best out front when you are trying to appeal [to the public] for help," Chief Manley says. "When you look at obituaries in the newspaper, [the photos] show a bright time in someone's life; you really want to show the person when they are doing well."

Manley says the police department used the victims' driver's license photographs to help with search efforts. "You don't need to air dirty laundry. Seeing someone's dark side doesn't appeal to the conscience of other people," he says.

Concern over the buried headlines and lack of national media attention isn't the only thing upsetting residents; some say there are deeper festering racial tensions in the community. When a candlelight vigil was held to commemorate the murdered women, only black community officials attended. When other vigils were organized for deaths in Rocky Mount, there was no racial divide, and community members, both black and white, attended the events in droves. "When a prominent attorney's wife died, we all came together and the church was full, but when the community was coming together to share their pain and reach out to these families, only black elected officials were there," Knight says. "They [white officials] didn't have an excuse, they just didn't come."

White officials, including the mayor, say they weren't invited to the memorial. "It's hard to attend something that you don't even know is occurring," says David Combs, mayor of Rocky Mount. "I was glad that we had the vigil and had people who were involved."

For the families who just want to locate their daughters or bring closure to their murders, the investigation has been a long, drawn-out process. Tucker speaks about her daughter in the past tense, quickly catches herself, and shifts to the present tense, emphasizing her commitment to finding her daughter. "As far as the investigation goes, I just hope they continue to do the best they can to put closure to the missing girls and the girls that have been found," Tucker says. "Whatever it is, we are here waiting."

"Regardless of drug addiction or other problems, that still doesn't give a person the right to kill (murder) another," says Knight. "If we can give a terrorist a day in court, we can get these women justice."
© 2009


Update:

Profilers dive into the details to find more about killer

By Thomasi McDonald - McClatchy Newspapers



RALEIGH, N.C. -- 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 unclothed remains of Ernestine Battle, 50, were found face down in the woods. No cause of death was determined by the medical examiner who wrote that the likely cause was homicidal violence.

The body of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28, was 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 body was 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 the 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 missing from Rocky Mount also 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 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."




Peace be upon you

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