Fayetteville PD addresses public fears about bodies found on Bragg Boulevard

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Fayetteville Police Department is working to assure the community that a series of recent deaths along the Bragg Boulevard corridor are not connected. This comes in response to concerns about information circulated on social media.

In all the cases, the causes of death remain unknown.

Women told ABC11 that they are living in fear - not knowing what's happening in their backyards.

"I'm protecting myself by any means necessary. Every means," said Nadawn Spencer, who said she is not only worried about herself but her younger daughter. "I'm very afraid. I have a 23-year-old daughter that travels for work, and she's out late some nights and every night I call her, when are you coming home so I can meet you at the door."

The first death was reported on Sept. 25 when a body was found behind the Motel 6 in the 3700 block of Bragg Boulevard.

Police said it appeared the victim had been at the location for a few days.

Then on Oct. 11, police responded to two separate death investigations.

The first was in the 1200 block of Bragg Boulevard. People working on a building that had been vacant for several years found a body in advanced stages of decomposition.

On that same day, police found the body of a woman in a field in the area of Fieldcrest Drive in the Bonnie Doone neighborhood. That death has been ruled a homicide.

That victim was identified as 40-year-old Crystal Loughran.

"I knew Crystal." one woman who didn't want to be identified told ABC11. She acknowledged It feels different when you know a victim.

"A whole lot differently, especially when it's someone that you know," she said. "Why wouldn't they allow the public to know what is really going on, because I have a lot of older folks I'm concerned with."

A makeshift memorial sits in the spot where Loughran's body was found.

And Monday, police responded to a call about skeletal remains in a wooded area along the 3900 block of Bragg Boulevard.

Investigators said those remains had been in the area for quite some time.

Officers were back there Tuesday with forensics trying to determine what happened.

"To have that many so quickly in such a short time frame; that's really alarming," said Daniel Autrey of Fayetteville.

Police said investigations into all of these cases are ongoing and said "there is no evidence to suggest a correlation between any of the cases."

Not all are convinced

"It seems like a very unusual coincidence," Autrey said.

Spencer, too, was skeptical.

"That's hard for people to believe," she said. "That's hard. Very hard for people to believe. Hopefully, they can get a handle on it soon."