N.C. sheriff emphasizes need for public help in Va. sisters' slaying

By Lauren King
The Virginian-Pilot

Hertford County Sheriff Juan Vaughan is still keeping a tight hold on details about the investigation into the slayings of two Virginia sisters, found on a dirt road outside of Murfreesboro.

But Vaughan's message remains the same.

He's still asking anyone with information to call police, even if they think it's something investigators already know.

Last week, seven Hertford County deputies and four Northampton County deputies set up traffic stops at two intersections on Vaughans Creek Road in North Carolina, near where the bodies of Dorothy Hobbs, 73, and Nellie Bradley, 71, were found Aug. 4.

The deputies kept watch on the intersections of Vaughans Creek Road and Vaughans Mill Road, outside of Murfreesboro in Hertford County, and Vaughans Creek Road and N.C. 35, in Northampton County from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday. They handed out fliers offering an unspecified reward and were looking for people who may have been passing through the area at the same time on the previous Friday.

Vaughan said the sisters were last seen at 4 p.m. that Friday, driving south on Va. 35 in Hobbs' black 1996 Ford Crown Victoria. They had just dropped off a Relay

for Life donation in Boykins, Va.

Their bodies were found by a passer-by along a dirt path off Vaughans Creek Road, nearly a mile north of Murfreesboro, at 7:38 p.m. Both had been stabbed multiple times. Hobbs' car was found about a mile outside Boykins about 11:30 p.m.

Vaughan said efforts are being focused on that 4 to 7 p.m. time period.

He said the same intersections may be visited again Friday to remind people who travel through the area that they're still looking for information and to try to seek out anyone else who hasn't already spoken with law officers.

"I want to remind people of our phone numbers," Vaughan said Tuesday. "We need people to call with any information that they have."

Six agencies have been working with the Hertford County Sheriff's Office in the investigation: the Northampton County Sheriff's Department, Murfreesboro Police Department, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Southampton and Greensville counties' sheriff's departments in Virginia and the FBI.

A reward will be offered, but Vaughan said he is still working with the state and federal governments to determine the amount of money that will be available.

He said he expects Gov. Mike Easley's office to determine how much the state can offer in the coming days and then the sheriff's office will add to that reward.

In Boykins, the small town where the women were last seen alive, former Mayor Rick Francis got home from a vacation and didn't recognize the town that has been home to his family for generations.

"This is not Boykins," said Francis, a lawyer with an office on Main Street. "I do criminal work, but nothing like this. My clients are not vicious people. They commit poverty-level crimes, like drugs and theft."

The last time Francis said he can remember anything even close to the slayings of the two sisters, it was at least 15 years ago, when a man was robbed and tied up.

The man managed to get loose.

"And he went after his attackers with a shotgun," Francis said.

The sisters' deaths were the talk of the town when he got home.

"It's unfortunate, horrible," he said. "It's on my ear everywhere I go."

North Carolina authorities are leading the investigation, but they have offered little information on the crime.

"We're all just hoping it's not somebody from around here," Francis said.

Staff writer Linda McNatt contributed to this report.