Associated Press
ROCKY MOUNT -- Neighbors of a man accused of killing one of six women found dead on the outskirts of rural Rocky Mount say he kept mostly to himself, but many are convinced he's innocent.
Antwan Maurice Pitt-man, 31, was charged with first-degree murder Monday in the death of 29-year-old Taraha Shenice Nicholson who was found strangled, her body dumped down a rural stretch of road where five other women have been found dead. Nicholson, like most of the slain women, had a history of drug abuse and prostitution.
The Edgecombe County sheriff formed a task force with the State Bureau of Investigation and asked the FBI to consult after the sixth body was discovered in June.
Neighbors in Pittman's run-down neighborhood in Rocky Mount, about 50 miles east of Raleigh, said they don't know him well, but they're skeptical of police.
"I wouldn't even believe he killed the first one," said 56-year-old neighbor Leroy Silver from a yard sale in his backyard, just around the corner from the house where Pittman lived with his mother and girlfriend. "I would see him around -- he's just a normal person."
Other neighbors sifting through card tables filled with glassware and old T-shirts jumped in to speculate that the murder was pinned on Pittman and that the police have no evidence.
Other neighbors say they're scared because they think the real killer is still out there and three women are still missing.
"I don't think that boy ever had a car," added Silver, wondering how Pitt-man could have picked up Nicholson and dumped her body on the outskirts of town without a car.
Silver's wife, 49-year-old Charlene Silver, agrees. People around here don't trust the police, she said, recounting a time she says she was thrown in jail because she resembled a police suspect. Counting out a fist-full of dollar bills -- proceeds from her yard sale -- she asked, "Where is the evidence?"
