The Lost Girls of Rocky Mount: The Full Case History, Timeline, and Evidence

Accuracy Disclaimer: This article is sourced from Wikipedia, GQ (Robert Draper), WUNC/BPR, and archival WRAL-TV and Associated Press reporting. Antwan Maurice Pittman has been convicted of only one of the deaths discussed here. He has not been charged in the other nine, and all individuals named are presumed innocent of any uncharged conduct unless and until proven otherwise in a court of law.

🎧 This article is the companion piece to Season 2, Episode 4 of The Last Known Moment. Listen to the full episode here.

Case History

Rocky Mount, North Carolina sits roughly an hour east of Raleigh, straddling Nash and Edgecombe counties. Once a thriving hub for tobacco and textile manufacturing, the city fell into a long economic decline over the second half of the 20th century — a decline that, by the mid-2000s, had left pockets of the community with high rates of poverty, addiction, and survival sex work.

Between 2005 and 2010, at least ten Black women from Rocky Mount and the surrounding Edgecombe and Halifax counties disappeared. Eight of their bodies were eventually recovered, many of them along or near a rural stretch of road called Seven Bridges Road — a detail that led media and investigators to refer to the case as the work of "the Edgecombe County serial killer," or simply "the Seven Bridges Killer." One woman, Joyce Renee Durham, has never been found.

All of the known victims were Black women. Most were navigating drug addiction, and several had histories of survival sex work. Reporting on the case — including a 2010 GQ feature by Robert Draper and local coverage by WUNC and BPR — has pointed to this pattern as a key reason the disappearances did not generate the police attention or media coverage that comparable cases involving other victims in the same town received. Playwright Marilynn Barner Anselmi wrote an entire production, Seven Bridges Road (2018), specifically to explore that disparity.

The Victims

• ◦Melody Wiggins, 29 — reported missing May 30, 2005; her body was found just three days later in rural Edgecombe County, showing signs of blunt-force and stab injuries. She was the first known victim.
• ◦Jackie Nikelia Thorpe — reported missing May 8, 2007; her remains, badly decomposed, were found that August near Seven Bridges Road — the first victim discovered at that location.
• ◦Christine Mary Boone, 43 — reported missing January 16, 2007; her skeletal remains were not identified until March 2010.
• ◦Joyce Renee Durham, 46 — last seen in Rocky Mount in June 2007. She has never been found.
• ◦Ernestine Battle, 50 — reported missing February 2008; a farmer found her skeletal remains near Seven Bridges Road that March. The remains were too decomposed to determine cause of death.
• ◦Elizabeth Jane Smallwood, 33 — found on a Rocky Mount soccer field; because she had lost contact with her family, her exact disappearance date is unknown. She is the sister of a separately convicted serial killer, Robert Smallwood — an unrelated case.
• ◦Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28 — reported missing February 22, 2009; found less than two weeks later near Seven Bridges Road, strangled. DNA evidence from her body would ultimately break the case open.
• ◦Yolanda Rene Lancaster, 36 — reported missing February 5, 2009; her remains were not found until January 2011, in woods off Seven Bridges Road.
• ◦Jarniece Latonya Hargrove, 31 — reported missing April 25, 2009; her remains were found that June, a short distance from Seven Bridges Road.
• ◦Roberta Williams, 40 — her body was found roadside near Seven Bridges Road in March 2010. Her family says they had reported her missing well before that — a report law enforcement denied ever receiving.

Timeline

• ◦May 30, 2005 — Melody Wiggins reported missing; found dead June 2, 2005.
• ◦January 16, 2007 — Christine Boone reported missing (remains not identified until 2010).
• ◦May 8, 2007 — Jackie Thorpe reported missing; found near Seven Bridges Road that August.
• ◦June 2007 — Joyce Durham last seen; never found.
• ◦February 2008 — Ernestine Battle reported missing; found that March.
• ◦February 5, 2009 — Yolanda Lancaster reported missing (remains not found until 2011).
• ◦February 22, 2009 — Taraha Nicholson reported missing; found March 7, 2009, strangled.
• ◦April 25, 2009 — Jarniece Hargrove reported missing; found that June.
• ◦~2009 — Elizabeth Smallwood's body found on a Rocky Mount soccer field.
• ◦August 2009 — Antwan Maurice Pittman, already a fugitive on a DUI charge, is arrested in neighboring Nash County. He is charged with Taraha Nicholson's murder the following month after a DNA match.
• ◦March 27, 2010 — Roberta Williams' body found roadside near Seven Bridges Road.
• ◦September 2011 — Pittman is convicted of Taraha Nicholson's murder and sentenced to life without parole.
• ◦January 2011 — Yolanda Lancaster's remains finally located by hunters, two years after she went missing.
• ◦July 2012 — A charity motorcycle ride is held in Rocky Mount to raise awareness for the (then) nine known victims.

Key Evidence

The case's only break came through forensic evidence recovered from Taraha Nicholson's body: investigators found semen that was matched via DNA analysis to Antwan Maurice Pittman, a Rocky Mount native with an extensive prior criminal record dating back to his teenage years, including a juvenile sexual-assault charge, theft, assault, resisting arrest, and a sex-offender registration violation.

Pittman had lived, at various points, in nearly every area where a victim's body was later found — including near his grandparents' home in Whitakers (close to where several remains were recovered) and near the soccer field where Elizabeth Smallwood's body was found. He was also stopped by traffic police on Seven Bridges Road on the same day Jarniece Hargrove disappeared; her body was found roughly 180 yards from that spot two months later.

At trial, Pittman admitted knowing Taraha Nicholson — he testified that he paid her for sex six days before her body was found and dropped her off near the downtown Rocky Mount library afterward. He was convicted of her murder in September 2011 and sentenced to life without parole.

Pittman has never been charged in the other nine deaths. Investigators have stated publicly that they believe he is connected to them, largely because the killings stopped after his 2009 arrest — but no additional charges have ever been filed, and no other suspect has been named.

Where the Case Stands Today

As of this recording, Joyce Renee Durham has never been found, and no one has been held accountable for any of the nine deaths beyond Taraha Nicholson's. Families of the other victims — echoed by local reporting from Lindell John Kay and the Associated Press over the years — have said publicly that they feel their cases were deprioritized because of who their daughters, sisters, and mothers were.

Sources

• ◦Wikipedia — *Edgecombe County serial killer*
• ◦GQ — "The Lost Girls of Rocky Mount," Robert Draper
• ◦WUNC / BPR — "The Missing Girls of Rocky Mount Inspire a New Play"
• ◦WRAL-TV archival reporting, 2007–2011
• ◦Associated Press — "Families of serial killer's victims still await justice," Lindell John Kay, October 30, 2016

If You Have Information

If you have any information about the unsolved deaths connected to this case, or about Joyce Renee Durham's whereabouts, please contact the Rocky Mount Police Department or the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office.

All stories covered on NaturalQueen77 TV are retold based on publicly available information, court documents, and media coverage. While we strive for accuracy, some details may be subject to interpretation or ongoing developments. All individuals discussed are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.