Murder, rape, kidnapping suspect found dead
EDGECOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- A cross-state crime spree and manhunt has ended.
It spanned three counties and ended in Edgecombe County. Investigators say a teenager is dead, a woman is in the hospital with a gunshot wound, and another woman was sexually assaulted. The man believed responsible is dead.
It all started Saturday night around 10 p.m. in Richfield about an hour from Charlotte.
"My wife heard a noise last night and it sounded like a gunshot," said Robert Simpson, who lives near 4095 Richfield Road.
When police arrived at that address, they found a broken window, two women shot, and a third hiding in the closet. Julia Moody was holding her two baby boys.
One of the women shot was Moody's 17-year-old sister Jennifer Merriman. She did not survive. The second victim is Moody's aunt, 54-year-old Bernice Merriman. She is expected to survive.
Investigators say the shooter was Moody's estranged husband, 33-year-old Montannez Moody. Investigators say he is also the father of the babies. The couple was scheduled to be in court Monday for a domestic violence order against Montannez.
Just after that shooting, reports of Moody surfaced more than an hour away in High Point, in Guilford County.
A man identified as Moody kidnapped a couple at gunpoint. The man who said he was kidnapped told investigators Moody eventually dumped him and took off with his girlfriend.
Just after 9 a.m. Sunday, investigators were then led to Pinetops in Edgecombe County, almost three hours from High Point. They received a call from a woman who said she had been raped. That information led authorities to farmland and a swampy area near highway 43 around Southwest Edgecombe High School. Authorities say the woman had been with Moody for more than eight hours in the area.
When investigators arrived, they evacuated a number of nearby homes. Tina Batten was in one of those homes and was forced to stay away for two hours until she was given the all clear to come home.
"He [the deputy] just told me there's a guy running around with a gun through the woods so we had to evacuate," said Batten. "The cop told me that the girl was running through the woods, got loose running through woods, as well as the guy."
Investigators say the kidnapped woman was able to escape and run to a nearby home for help after Moody passed out in his car, investigators believe from cocaine. They found the car he used and tracked Moody down with dogs. On their trail, they found a weapon, drugs, and eventually Moody, lying face down dead in a swampy area from a possible overdose.
The woman he kidnapped was treated at Vidant Edgecombe Hospital.
