Update: NC Child Murders/Disappearances
Maggie
the Charlotte, NC cops/prosecutors are exceptionally close-mouthed about the
details of their cases. From the Charlotte Observer:
Posted at 10:25 p.m. EST Saturday, December 30, 2000
Questions haunt families of 4 children
3 Deaths remain unsolved and 1 girl is still missing despite police efforts
As the year draws to a close, the deaths of three children and the
disappearance of another remain a mystery in the Piedmont.
Each story is different and police don't believe they are connected in any way,
but they have all frustrated police, shocked communities and left families with
unanswered questions.
In one case, there's been an arrest, but medical examiners can't figure out how
the boy died. In two others, police haven't arrested anyone, though it's been
more than a year since the homicides. One family is left not knowing whether
their child is dead or alive.
They hold out hope that she's OK.
All four families hope they will at least get their questions answered some
day.
No cause of death
For Christmas last year, Billy Huddleston got a radio-control boat for the pond
behind his Oakboro home.
This year, Billy's parents left a tiny tree on the 12-year-old's grave.
Christmas marked the five-month anniversary of the day the tow-headed fishing
fanatic went for a bike ride and never came back.
Although a man stands accused in Billy's death, his parents still don't know
what killed the boy, whose body was found July 28 in a Union County cornfield.
The pathologist who autopsied Billy's body characterized the death as a
homicide, based on the circumstances, but she found nothing to show what killed
him.
"He was my life," his mother, Rachel Huddleston, said. "I built my life around
him."
Earlier this month, prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty against
Bobby Richard Taylor Jr., the man accused of first-degree murder in connection
with Billy's death.
Prosecutors will not discuss what evidence they have linking Taylor to the
case.
Authorities found Billy's bicycle at Taylor's house after the boy was reported
missing. The 30-year-old told police Billy asked him if he could leave the bike
in the yard before the boy left with others in a car the night he disappeared.
Taylor intends to plead not guilty, said his lawyer, Patrick Currie.
In Oakboro, where many of the community's 1,500 residents searched for Billy
during the days he was missing, people still wonder why such horror came to
their small town. But they let their children play outside now, confident it
won't return.
For Billy's parents, who are divorced but remain friends, the healing has come
much harder.
Billy is everywhere - in the laughter of the young niece who idolized him, the
thump-thump of the rap music he loved, the marks on the bedroom door where they
measured his height, year-by-year, for 11 years.
"We were going to do 12," said his dad, William Huddleston. "But we never got
around to it."
Heather Howard
Missing since February
Asha Degree, who would now be 10, disappeared from her Shelby home the night of
Feb. 14.
She has not been seen since. The Cleveland County Sheriff's Office, the girl's
relatives and the FBI say they do not know what became of her.
There was no reason, it seems, for her to run away in the middle of a rainy
night.
Asha excelled last year in her fourth-grade class at Fallston Elementary
School. She was shy, but was playful with her 11-year-old brother, O'Bryant,
and an enthusiastic, pigtailed player on her basketball team. She loved to
attend weekly services with her family at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church
in Waco. Her parents, Iquilla and Harold Degree - who were celebrating their
12th wedding anniversary the day their youngest child vanished - both work and
share child-rearing responsibilities.
Asha's parents reported her missing at 6:30 a.m. Feb. 14 after her mother went
to wake her and discovered she was gone. Truckers spotted her walking along
N.C. 18, about a mile from her house, earlier that morning. A few days later,
searchers found her candy wrappers, hair bow and other belongings in a shed
near the highway. It's been nothing but dead ends since.
Local investigators, who worked with the FBI and State Bureau of Investigation,
believe Asha ran away, then met trouble. They say they have eliminated Asha's
family members as suspects.
Missing children's experts say it is practically unheard-of for a child as
young as Asha or from such an apparently stable home to run away.
Appeals on national shows, including "America's Most Wanted" and "The Montel
Williams Show," turned up nothing. The initial ground search, hundreds of
telephone tips and searches by divers of local bodies of water haven't answered
any of the lingering questions.
Aileen Soper
Active case, no arrest
Justin Marlow's family members know how, when and where the 8-year-old died.
But it's been more than a year, and they still don't know who killed him or
why.
Justin was murdered in October 1999 - two days before Halloween. He'd been
playing with friends in his southeast Mecklenburg neighborhood and didn't come
home at dark.
An hour later, his body was discovered on the second floor of a house under
construction. He'd been strangled.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have interviewed scores of neighborhood adults and
kids, scoured the house for physical evidence and even gotten the FBI to help
with the case, but have been unable to make an arrest.
Two investigators continue to work nearly full time on the case. They still get
calls almost weekly from neighbors who have questions about the case or think
they may have heard something that might help.
Justin loved to play outside. He liked Winnie the Pooh and eating Gummi Bears.
He went to McKee Road Elementary school and looked up to his older brother,
Jamie.
After Justin's murder, some neighbors asked the builder to tear down the home
where the boy died. The builder didn't do that, but instead built a meditation
park in his memory nearby. A police officer and his family now live in the
house where Justin died.
Justin's family has planted trees behind their house, an effort to block their
view of the place where their little boy lost his life.
Melissa Manware
Looked accidental, but not so
At first, Joseph Eli Lewis' death appeared to be an accident.
On July 6, 1999, firefighters pulled the 5-year-old's lifeless body from the
bottom of his apartment complex swimming pool.
Everyone thought he drowned.
Then a week later, police said an autopsy showed that his death was a homicide.
The case remains unsolved.
Police have interviewed more than 50 neighbors - many of them with children -
and heard several different stories about what happened just before Joseph was
found dead. They know, but won't say, how the boy died. They say their secrecy
is essential to the investigation, which is still open and active.
Relatives have been unavailable to talk about the boy or provide a photograph
of him.
Neighbors knew Joseph as an energetic boy who loved to play in an imaginary
clubhouse in the bushes of his northeast Charlotte apartment complex.
Since his death, they said, they keep a watch on their own children. They said
not knowing who killed Joseph made it hard to let their own children play
outside.
Melissa Manware
Asha Degree
Has been missing since Feb. 14
Billy Huddleston
Cause of death still unknown
Justin Marlow
No arrests in his October 1999 death
Maggie
"Pretty smart campaign for a dumb guy."--Newsweek on George W.