Connected cases kindle coalition for missing women

May 2007 was a pivotal time in Jackie Wiggins’ life. She spent most evenings that month scouring the streets searching for her adult daughter, Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, asking neighborhood friends if they’d seen her and pleading with police to put out an alert.

Three months later, a man searching for bottles between the Battleboro community and Whitakers found a skeleton in a trash heap behind a burned-out farm house on Seven Bridges Road. After a few weeks, dental records confirmed the body was Thorpe’s.

“What made it worse was it didn’t seem like anybody cared,” Wiggins said, fighting back tears.

Today, as national attention focuses on her daughter’s death as part of a larger series of area murders, Wiggins is part of an effort she hopes will raise awareness about missing women of all backgrounds and help ensure other mothers won’t suffer the same heartbreak.

It wasn’t unusual for Thorpe, 35, to go missing, Wiggins said. She often was strung out on drugs, sometimes disapearing days at a time only to return as if nothing had happened. But this time was different, Wiggins said.

“I told the police, ‘This isn’t her,’” Wiggins said. “I knew something was wrong.”

Despite her efforts, there were no search crews canvassing fields or neighborhoods when Thorpe went missing, Wiggins said. Her photo wasn’t posted in area newspapers, on TV reports or on flyers around town. When Thorpe disappeared, few noticed.

When she was found murdered a few months later, the Telegram summarized her death in five paragraphs, and the case was mentioned in a single, 30-second TV news report. A few friends called to sympathize, but that was the end of it.

“It didn’t seem like anybody cared,” Wiggins said. “The police didn’t seem to care when I filed the report. Nobody ever got back with me saying, ‘We’re working on it.’ Nobody came out to my house to get a picture or asked me to bring a picture.

“I guess it didn’t seem important enough.”

Two years later, Thorpe’s death is part of a larger case that in recent weeks has drawn national media attention and has raised questions about potential disparities in how society responds to missing persons.

“That’s what we’re going to change,” said Stephanie Jones, who founded Missing or Murdered Sisters to raise awareness of the case.

At least five Rocky Mount women, all black, have been abducted, killed and abandoned in fields and wooded areas since 2005, and three other women with similar profiles are missing. Investigators believe the homicides, as well as the murder of a sixth woman yet to be identified, might be linked.

Each of the victims had a history of drug abuse and suspected prostitution.

Edgecombe County Sheriff James Knight won’t reveal details about the investigation but said last week the task force of local, state and federal authorities has tracked more than 300 leads in recent months.

Outside profilers are convinced the murders are the work of a serial killer.

Authorities called in FBI forensic profilers in late July to assist the investigation.

Officials first publicly connected the dots between the cases in June, a few days after the fifth victim, Jarneice Hargrove, was found off Seven Bridges Road. Until then, each individual case received little attention, Jones said.

Family of the victims and other missing women have complained to Jones about what they had perceived as a lack of support from law enforcement and the community. Jones founded the organization, MoMS, to change that, she said.

“This isn’t just about this case,” Jones said. “MoMS is going to be an advocate for all missing persons, regardless of race or social class. Anyone who needs help — anybody who isn’t receiving the attention they need — we’re going to advocate for them and raise awareness about the case.”

Jones said she sees some good coming from the tragedies. There seems to be a heightened awareness of missing persons in Rocky Mount, Jones said. Women and girls are being more careful, and local authorities seem more sensitive when someone is reported missing, she said.

Rocky Mount police refute the idea that authorities didn’t give proper attention to past cases of missing women.