NC: Questions remain in slain boy's death...
Slimpickins
Sunday, August 6, 2000
Questions remain in death of boy, 12
Friends raise $3,000 for funeral expenses
By SAMANTHA PETERSON
OAKBORO -- At a hot dog and bluegrass cookout, dozens of family, friends and
neighbors of Billy Huddleston raised about $3,000 for funeral expenses
Saturday but still don't know how the 12-year-old died or the background of
the man charged with murder in his death.
"My anxiety right now is to find out exactly what happened," said Billy's
mother, Rachel Huddleston. A gold locket with pictures of Billy hung around
her neck.
Waiting for information is difficult, she said, but she's not pushing the
sheriff's office because she wants them "to do a good job."
Authorities have said that the boy was not shot, stabbed or sexually
assaulted, and there were no bruises on his body.
Bobby Richard Taylor Jr., 30, the man arrested Friday and charged with
first-degree murder, was moved to a state prison in Raleigh late Friday
because jailers in Stanly County feared for his safety among local inmates,
said Stanly Sheriff Tony Frick. He does not seem to have a criminal record,
Frick said.
Residents of this town of about 1,500 said Taylor was active in the search
for Billy, bringing coffee and helping organize.
"The sickening part about this is how he participated in the search," said
Joe Lowder, an Oakboro town commissioner and former Stanly County sheriff.
Taylor had moved to Oakboro in January and had been unemployed in recent
months.
Billy was last seen July25. When he didn't return home that evening,
volunteers began searching. His body was found threedays later in a
cornfield.
Saturday, Huddleston sat inside the old dry-cleaning building she had
planned to turn into a crafts, gift and antique shop. The building had
served as search headquarters.
Five feet behind her, a mini-refrigerator sat in the corner, a small copy
machine perched on top of it. Family and friends say Taylor brought the copy
machine that he and his mother owned to the building the night Billy
disappeared and taught them how to make fliers on it.
"This is their copy machine," said Billy's brother, Scott Taylor, 27.
"Is it?" Huddleston replied.
"Yeah," replied Taylor, who is not related to Bobby Taylor.
No one gave Bobby Taylor's presence a second thought, said Steve Mills,
Huddleston's boyfriend.
"He just acted normal," Mills said. "Just like everybody."
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Staff writer Melissa Manware contributed to this article.
Billy
Maggie
>Sunday, August 6, 2000
>
>Questions remain in death of boy, 12
>Friends raise $3,000 for funeral expenses
>
>By SAMANTHA PETERSON
>
>OAKBORO -- At a hot dog and bluegrass cookout, dozens of family, friends
>and
>neighbors of Billy Huddleston raised about $3,000 for funeral expenses
>Saturday but still don't know how the 12-year-old died or the background
>of
>the man charged with murder in his death.
>
>"My anxiety right now is to find out exactly what happened," said Billy's
>mother, Rachel Huddleston. A gold locket with pictures of Billy hung around
>her neck.
>
>Waiting for information is difficult, she said, but she's not pushing the
>sheriff's office because she wants them "to do a good job."
>
>Authorities have said that the boy was not shot, stabbed or sexually
>assaulted, and there were no bruises on his body.
***Well, I guess that leaves strangulation. Surprising, then, that there was no
sexual assault.
Keep us posted, Slim.
Maggie
"A long dispute means that both parties are wrong." Voltaire
WyrdWoman
> Slim posted a news story:
> >
> >or sexually assaulted, and there were no bruises on his
> >body.
>
> ***Well, I guess that leaves strangulation. Surprising, then,
> that there was no sexual assault.
Wouldn't strangulation leave some sort of bruising most of the time?
Perhaps he was poisoned somehow? (Though that would surprise me.)
--
WyrdWoman
BarbiGIRLnut
>Perhaps he was poisoned somehow? (Though that would surprise me.)
>
>--
>WyrdWoman
>
>http://www.wyrdwoman.com/
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
perhaps suffocation by pillow or something? maybe the guy wanted the child
*deceased* before he acted out his scenario
Maggie
>> Slim posted a news story:
>> >
>> >Authorities have said that the boy was not shot, stabbed
>> >or sexually assaulted, and there were no bruises on his
>> >body.
>>
>> ***Well, I guess that leaves strangulation. Surprising, then,
>> that there was no sexual assault.
>
>Wouldn't strangulation leave some sort of bruising most of the time?
>Perhaps he was poisoned somehow? (Though that would surprise me.)
***I just checked and the cops *still* haven't released a cause of death or
said whether or not Taylor's story that he had passed a polygraph is true.
Where are those leaky LA cops when you need them?