So I have decided to turn all my experience in the investigative field (CSI, CSI:Miami and Murder She Wrote watching) to work. In most urban areas there are lots of murders and they usually stem from some sort of illegal activity of the minorities. (I know, shades of racism, but is it racism if I am black?)In Wake County, NC we have our fair share of those drug shoot out, killing baby mommas, killing over cheating or exes situations. But lately I have noticed that we have had a lot of murders of upper middle class white women. (I hate to see anybody killed, but as a black upper/lower class chick I am glad that somebody has closed open season on us in Wake County. Know what I mean?) One of these murders got a lot of national attention. The Kathleen Peterson murder case was featured on Dateline NBC and there was even a miniseries/movie based on the case. It actually happened in Durham Co. though. More about Micheal and Kathleen Peterson here. There are several murders that are currently preparing for trial. In most of them the husband is the prime suspect. The Nancy Cooper murder hits kinda close to home. One of the families in my classroom was close to this family. More about the Cooper story here and here. But, the case that has me trying to get my Angela Lansbury on is the recent murder of a state school board member. She was murdered a few blocks from the dude that I am crushing on. This is a nice upper class old stable money neighborhood near NC State. I believe that many of the professors from the university live there. Kathy Taft was a 62 year old single woman who recovering from facial plastic surgery is found badly injured by her sister on the morning of March 6th 2010. The 911 calls and search warrants were recently released to the public. In my reading of the transcripts and other documents I have come across some weird stuff. Taft Case Documents: here and here.
Weird Stuff I Have Found in this Case
1. The murder occurred in the home of Kathy Taft's ex boyfriend. The boyfriend was out of state--in Florida at the time of the attack.
2. The sister that found the injured Taft had stayed the night at the home and according to some accounts was at home during the attack.
3. When the sister came to check on Taft after making an early run to the Harris Teeter grocery store, she found her unresponsive and covered in blood. She called 911 and the victim was transported to the hospital.
4. At the hospital a rape kit was performed and there was evidence of a sexual assault along with the massive head injuries. Taft was in a coma and died three days later.
5. Back to the sister-- She claims that she went to Harris Teeter for some stuff and locked her keys in her car a 2002 Durango. She then walked the short distance home (to ex bf's home) and got keys to Taft's Lexus and drove back to the store. Why? I don't know.
6. Then she finally checks on her sister at 11 am and calls 911. I would have checked on my sister before I left for the store. I am not sure what time she left, but the sister stated that she heard Taft snoring at 3 am. Why not check on her before going to the store?
7. A grocery store employee said that he saw a similar Durango in the parking lot with the engine running at 6 am that morning. That is odd because the store doesn't open until 7 am. Why would Taft's sister be waiting at the store a full hour before it opened? The store is so close to the home that it is visible from the house. Shoe could have gone home to wait for it to open.
8. Some of the items listed in the search warrants of the Durango, Lexus and the home are: baggie corners (smoke weed much?), hand written notes, check and checkbook, golf clubs, hotel receipt, cereal (wtf), DNA samples and latent hand prints.
1. The murder occurred in the home of Kathy Taft's ex boyfriend. The boyfriend was out of state--in Florida at the time of the attack.
2. The sister that found the injured Taft had stayed the night at the home and according to some accounts was at home during the attack.
3. When the sister came to check on Taft after making an early run to the Harris Teeter grocery store, she found her unresponsive and covered in blood. She called 911 and the victim was transported to the hospital.
4. At the hospital a rape kit was performed and there was evidence of a sexual assault along with the massive head injuries. Taft was in a coma and died three days later.
5. Back to the sister-- She claims that she went to Harris Teeter for some stuff and locked her keys in her car a 2002 Durango. She then walked the short distance home (to ex bf's home) and got keys to Taft's Lexus and drove back to the store. Why? I don't know.
6. Then she finally checks on her sister at 11 am and calls 911. I would have checked on my sister before I left for the store. I am not sure what time she left, but the sister stated that she heard Taft snoring at 3 am. Why not check on her before going to the store?
7. A grocery store employee said that he saw a similar Durango in the parking lot with the engine running at 6 am that morning. That is odd because the store doesn't open until 7 am. Why would Taft's sister be waiting at the store a full hour before it opened? The store is so close to the home that it is visible from the house. Shoe could have gone home to wait for it to open.
8. Some of the items listed in the search warrants of the Durango, Lexus and the home are: baggie corners (smoke weed much?), hand written notes, check and checkbook, golf clubs, hotel receipt, cereal (wtf), DNA samples and latent hand prints.
What I Think This Means:
So this is the evidence on which I am going to make some assumptions. Now, remember the ASSUME acronym... but I am going ahead with what I think happened. On one of the local news websites, people are speculating a sister suspect theory that had to do with jealousy. I am going to use that theory in my assumptions as well. It just sounds right... I think that the sisters argued over something, perhaps a man... maybe John Geil, the owner of the house where the assault took place. Maybe the sister thought that Taft was vain for having the surgery. Taft was a good looking 62 year old woman. I thought that she was in her 50's by looking at photos. Also according to the search warrants, the sister lived in an apartment in a tiny little hamlet on the NC coast. I couldn't see it on Google Maps so I am not sure how it looks, but because the address is an Apartment A address is doesn't sound that great. Taft lived in Greenville, NC and I am sure that her place was nice.
At the hospital the doctors realized that Taft had a laceration on the top to the back of her head and had been sexually assaulted. In the search warrants golf clubs were seized. I think that maybe the sister hit Taft in the head and knew that she killed her or was close to killing her so she used the handle of a club to sexually assault her. I mean, you don't have to be raped with a penis to have been sexually assaulted, right? She wanted it to look like a break in or something, but there does not seem to be evidence of one at this time.
Unlike in my show Murder She Wrote, the cops have been very tight lipped in this case. I haven't heard any conversations by the suspects or even read the statement of the sister. That is the next document that I am looking for. I also want to find some sort of time line that will give me more information. The posts from readers on WRAL.com establish that the sister locked her keys in the car, walked to the house and left again in Taft's Lexus. I cannot find that information anywhere. I don't know if that is just speculation or if I have missed something.
Well, I am gonna be like my other hometown home-girl Calleigh Duquesne from CSI:Miami (played by Raleigh native Emily Proctor) and follow the evidence. If only I had that hot Eric Delko by my side!!!
Stay tuned. I do plan to make this a regular series on this blog, as long as I can continue to get other information. In researching this post as I wrote it I did come across more intriguing information about the Nancy Cooper case pertaining to the parties involved that I know well. I will keep my eye on that one too.
