A High Point man was arrested by Greensboro Police Department detectives on Sept. 1 for the first-degree murder of his girlfriend. The 26-year-old woman, who remains missing, was last seen alive on June 16 at the Huntley Court apartment she shared with the man believed to be her killer.
Authorities believe the woman was killed shortly after that. According to information and belief, police state the two had a domestic dispute and that he killed her either on the 16th or the following day. Nearly a month later on July 12, her family filed an official missing persons report.
A captain with the Greensboro police department said that family members waited so long to report her missing because they were under the impression she might have moved off with a friend.
He said. “When someone is missing, the first thing we look at is the person closest to them.” The man was seen driving around in the missing woman’s car on different occasions and moved out of the apartment the two had shared.
At the time of his arrest, police believe he was the only one involved. In the course of the homicide investigation, police encountered evidence that led them to also charge him with first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and indecent liberties with children.
The latter charges involve a single victim, the captain stated, adding that more charges related to the woman’s disappearance, as well as unrelated sex offenses will likely be forthcoming as the investigation continues to unfold.
The arrested man was supposed to have been on probation through Aug. 2 for assault with the N.C. Department of Public Safety. He remains locked up in the Greensboro Jail Central without bail.
Whenever someone is charged with murder, the stakes cannot possibly be higher. While it is certainly possible to win a conviction without a body, prosecutors have to work harder to make it stick. An aggressive defense attorney can sometimes cast just enough doubt in jurors’ minds to win an acquittal or at least a hung jury.
Source: News & Record, “Greensboro police: Missing woman was killed by boyfriend,” Sarah Newel Williamson, Sep. 02, 2016