Agreed. All those behind the scenes meetings of party leaders
in Raleigh restaurants, lawyers offices and at the courthouse
suggest the election was not about the DA's office alone.
Police: Murder suspect may have stalked officer
BY BRIANNE DOPART : The Herald-Sun, Jan 24, 2007 : 12:18 am ET
DURHAM -- The woman who is accused of murdering N.C. Central University graduate student Denita Smith may have been stalking Smith's fiance, Greensboro police officer Jemeir Jackson-Stroud, according to warrants filed by Durham police Investigator S.M. Pate and made available Tuesday.
Smith's body was discovered outside her Campus Crossings off-campus apartment at 1400 Cornwallis Road on Jan. 4, two hours after Durham Police received reports of gunshots heard in the area. Shannon Elizabeth Crawley, a former Greensboro emergency 911 dispatcher, has been charged with the slaying.
Crawley, Jackson-Stroud told investigators, was most likely the woman a Campus Crossings groundskeeper saw leaving the complex moments after the gunshots sounded. His statement, made public within the warrants released Tuesday, marks the first time Smith's shooter has been linked to Jackson-Stroud.
According to warrants, the groundskeeper heard a shot at 8:18 a.m., and one minute later, saw a woman walking around the building in front of which Smith's body was later discovered. The woman was driving a burgundy Ford Explorer with a gray stripe, according to warrants. The groundskeeper noticed the woman was crying, warrants said, and asked the woman if she was OK. The woman "just continued to cry," the warrants said.
The groundskeeper told police he asked the woman if she heard shots and she nodded, at which point he said he was going to call police. The woman then drove away, despite the groundskeeper's request that she stay.
Upon hearing the groundskeeper's description of the woman and her vehicle, Jackson-Stroud told investigators he knew a woman who drove such a vehicle and that she had been " 'stalking' him for a while" warrants said. He told investigators Crawley had seen Smith before and would know who she was.
On Jan. 6, investigators searched Crawley's residence and Ford Explorer which, according to warrants, was still parked outside Crawley's place of employment. They seized Crawley's uniform, a phone bill, a computer tower, an envelope containing photos, a print-out of e-mails and a floppy disk. They also performed two gunshot residue kits, warrants said.
While the warrant describes the events of Jan. 4 in detail, no mention is made of Durham police officers' attempts to search Campus Crossings Apartments after the 8:18 a.m. reports of shots fired. Police did not return to the complex and discover Smith's body until 10:01 a.m., according to the warrant, when they were again called to the complex in response to reports of "a subject down."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-812204.cfm
* At least the H-S is keeping up with this story.
The groundskeeper is at the scene at the time and
the body is not found until two hours later.