CNN Brings National Attention To The Rocky Mount Murders!

Since 2005,five black women with similar backgrounds have been found murdered & abandoned in remote locations near Rocky Mount,NC.A lot of people feel like there was not enough local or national attention being paid to their deaths because of their economic,social,& ethnic background.All of the women were poor,black & they may have been sex workers.Many feel that for those reasons their story was not receiving the national attention that it deserved.

Here's more on that from The Rocky Mount Telegram:

"Pepita Hargrove wept last week when funeral officials pulled a cover from the decomposing remains of her sister, Jarniece Hargrove.

It’s hard, she said, to shake the image of her sister struggling against a strange man, before ultimately being strangled to death and dumped in the woods.

“My sister was so loving,” Pepita said after authorities told her family Jarniece was dead. “She was into some stuff — she always struggled with drugs — but she had a very loving heart.”

In some parts of Rocky Mount, Latonia Taylor said, the string of murders is all anyone talks about. In other parts, nobody seems to care, she said.

“Everyone in my neighborhood is scared, and we want justice,” said Taylor, who knew three of the victims. “But most of my friends who live across town didn’t even know anything about it until I told them. I mean, women are dying.”

Rocky Mount Councilman and local NAACP President Andre Knight said he wonders if the murders would garner more local and national attention if the victims came from different backgrounds. Either way, he’s challenging federal investigators to launch a probe into the case.

A group of East Rocky Mount residents, many of whom knew the victims, has launched a campaign to raise awareness about the murders and create a team to canvass the areas where women have been found.

Willette Battle stood under the hot afternoon sun Friday on Fairview Road holding a sign that read: “Their lifestyles shouldn’t mean they get a death sentence.” Battle, who knew three of the victims and at least one of the missing women, worked to flag down motorists, hoping to sell plates of food to raise money and awareness.

“Nobody is paying attention, it seems like,” Battle said. “These women were fun to be around and they loved to laugh. They lived tough lives, but they were all beautiful. Nobody cares about that, seems like.”

If the women had different names or were of a different race from a different part of town, Battle said, the outcry would be national, and it would be relentless.

“That’s not the case, but we’re working to change that,” Battle said.

Regardless of media or community attention, Pepita Hargrove said she prays authorities catch whoever might be responsible for the killings and, more than anything, hopes her sister and the other victims will be remembered as more than drug-addicted prostitutes.

“These girls are all someone’s sister or someone’s daughter or someone’s mother,” Pepita said. “It doesn’t seem like anybody cares about that. My sister was a good person.

“I want justice to be brought to whoever’s doing this.” (END OF EXCERPT)Read the entire story here.

Now,someone in the national media has finally brought this story to the forefront.Hopefully,CNN's reports on the Rocky Mount killings will help catch the serial killer who is still out there looking for more victims.

Why is it that CNN is the only one that finds this story to be newsworthy? Is it because this black serial killer has only claimed the lives of black prostitutes?

Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact the Rocky Mount Police Department at 252-972-1411.