Victim's family seeks help to solve murders

The family of the most recent Rocky Mount woman found murdered in Western Edgecombe County is calling on anyone with details about the string of murders to come forward.

“Someone needs to step up and do something about this,” Pepita Hargrove said Wednesday, two days after learning remains found last week matched her 31-year-old sister Jarniece Latonya Hargrove. “I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this. Whoever is doing this needs to be brought to justice.”

Authorities will not definitively say if the murders of Hargrove and four other women found dead the past four years are related, but a series of similarities seems to link the cases.

All of the victims were black women found in remote locations near the eastern boundary of Rocky Mount, and each had a history of drug or alcohol abuse, according to criminal records. Two of the victims were previously convicted on prostitution charges.

Hargrove’s family said deputies indicated each of the victims was found without clothes, although officials would not confirm the statement.

An autopsy for one of the women indicates possible strangulation, and family said unofficial results from Hargrove’s autopsy indicate the same.

“It’s obvious when you step back and connect the dots, these cases are related,” Rocky Mount Councilman and NAACP President Andre Knight said. “These are all black females who are being targeted, and regardless of whatever lifestyles or backgrounds are attributed to them, nobody deserves to be killed. It’s very troubling for the community.”

The Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office is leading a task force investigation to determine if the murders are related, Sheriff James Knight said, declining any further comment.

District Attorney Robert Evans and Rocky Mount police met last week to discuss their offices’ potential involvement in the investigation. The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation already is involved, Sheriff Knight said in a previous interview.

The first four victims were identified as:

Melody Wiggins, 29, found May 30, 2005, in an area south of U.S. 64. She died from a blunt strike to the head.

Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35, found Aug. 17, 2007, between the Battleboro community and Whitakers. She had been reported missing May 8, 2007.

Ernestine Battle, 50, found March 14, 2008, also between Battleboro and Whitakers.

Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28, of Rocky Mount, found March 7, 2009. Authorities said she was strangled.

A crew of inmates also discovered skeletal remains in February near Melton Drive in Rocky Mount, but that person has not been identified, officials said.

A worker found Hargrove’s skeletal remains last week in a wooded area off Seven Bridges Road, about two months after she went missing from her Rocky Mount home.

Pepita Hargrove said she broke down when deputies told her family her sister was dead.

“She’s my only sister, and I want justice given to the person who did this,” Pepita said. “She had problems, sure. But nobody deserves for her life to be taken.”

Pepita said her sister was schizophrenic and struggled with drug abuse, but said overall her sister was “a loving and caring person.” Pepita said she and her family wept when funeral directors showed them her sister’s remains.

“That’s something I will remember for the rest of my life,” Pepita said. “Nobody should have to go through that. Nobody. Whoever is doing this needs to be brought to justice.”

Andre Knight said he’s heard outcry from the community about the string of incidents, but wonders if enough public attention has been paid.

“Regardless of what a person is involved in, that’s still someone’s child, still someone’s mother, still someone’s sister,” Knight said. “No one has the right to take someone’s life. That’s a concern regardless of what color or race or crowd that person comes from.”

Rocky Mount Police Chief John Manley, whose department is assisting in the investigation, said it’s troubling when members of the community are found dead under such circumstances.

Manley is urging anyone with information about these cases, or any other incidents of missing women, to contact authorities as soon as possible.

In the meantime, he and Sheriff Knight said area residents should take common-sense precautions, by being safe and knowing the community.