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The next day, she was again scheduled to work. When she proved
truant a second time, Ellis called the police. Baucom was wholly
reliable and acts of absenteeism, especially two in a row, were
contrary to her efficient nature. Police officer Gregory Norwood
responded to the call.
Obtaining access into her flat through the maintenance man,
Norwood discovered Baucom fully clothed, face down on her mattress,
choked to death by a towel twisted into a noose around her neck. She
was stone cold, having been dead more than 24 hours.
This time, for the first time, the police believed the murderer
had left them something to go on. Whereas the past victims' places
of residence reflected only minor, if any, physical signs of
disturbance, Baucom's apartment had been noticeably plundered. A
bare entertainment center and cable wires leading nowhere told them
that a TV and a VCR were missing. As well, Baucom's aqua-colored
Pulsar was gone from the building's parking lot.
Squad cars were alerted to look out for the Pulsar cruising
Charlotte's streets. Simultaneously, investigators checked local
pawnshops to see if someone had tried to exchange the stolen goods
for cash. But, while this was happening, a headquarters dispatcher
summoned a patrol to the apartment of Brandi Henderson, whose
boyfriend had just found her dead. When the police arrived, they
realized it was the same apartment complex where Betty Baucom had
just been found.
More than that, this latest scene was pure chaos, the worst
aftermath of the Strangler's attacks to date. This time he had
assaulted a baby as well!
The boyfriend who called the police, Verness Lamar Woods, lived
with Henderson. He had just come home from his job's night shift to
find a ravaged apartment, his girlfriend dead in bed with towels
encircling her neck, and their 10-month-old toddler, T.W., in his
room, barely alive and also garroted.
A court summary of the incident reads, "Woods immediately
ran to T.W. to remove (a pair of) shorts, which were tied tightly
around (his) neck." When Woods found Henderson, strangled and
stiff, her face was a bluish tone. "He moved Henderson's body
from the bed to the floor and began administering CPR pursuant to
instructions from the 911 operator. When police officers arrived, it
was clear Henderson was dead."
An ambulance rushed little T.W. to the Carolinas Medical Center
where at first doctors feared the asphyxiation he suffered might
have caused brain damage. Luckily, the child revived and tests
indicated that he would recover without permanent injury. Dr. Thomas
Brewer wrote, however, that the child had endured great pain and
mental distress because of the applied ligature.
Detectives could feel their blood boiling at this point; their
commander Gary McFadden drew his squad together for a meeting early
the next morning to compare the notes they had made during their
interviews with the deceased women's acquaintances. The results of
the reports were enlightening. They indicated that the girls did not
seem to know each other – although some had crossed paths – or
had never worked or schooled together. The clubs where they
socialized differed. But...when asked to list names of people
with whom each victim associated, all of the interviewees mentioned
in their list the same name: Henry Louis Wallace.
Of the slain women, both Shawna Hawk and Audrey Spain had at one
time worked at Taco Bell for the same manager, Henry Wallace.
Valencia Jumper was a good friend of Wallace's sister, Yvonne.
Michelle Stinson would often eat at Taco Bell and chat with
Wallace.
Vanessa Mack was the sister of one of Wallace's ex-girlfriends.
Betty Baucom was a friend of Wallace's current girlfriend, Sadie
McKnight.
Brandi Henderson was the girlfriend of one of Wallace's pals,
Verness Lamar Woods, who found Brandi. In fact, Woods had told the
police that Wallace was prone to visit with Brandi while he was at
work.
Reaching back into the open case of "missing person"
Caroline Love, detectives now realized that Love had also known
Wallace well; she had been the roommate of Sadie McKnight, his
girlfriend, whom Wallace visited regularly.
The puzzle pieces slid into place perfectly now. When pulling a
rap sheet on the sudden suspect, Sergeant McFadden was surprised to
find that, as he recalls, "An outstanding warrant was already
out for Henry Louis Wallace for having failed to come to court on a
recent larceny charge."
"When the police approached Sadie McKnight, she was very
taken aback, very surprised that her boyfriend Henry was suspected
of being the Charlotte Strangler," adds Charisse Coston.
"But, the more she thought about it, the more sense it made.
All along, Henry had been giving her presents – bracelets, rings
and necklaces – that sometimes seemed to be very familiar. In
retrospect, she now realized that she had been wearing dead
girlfriends' jewelry!"
But, still Gary McFadden wondered: Is it all just coincidence?
So he knew the women...would he have an alibi?...Could it be proven
he had been with the victims on the nights they were killed?
And then it came, the evidence McFadden dreamed about. Betty
Baucom's Pulsar was located, abandoned across town. Swipes of
fingerprints found on the trunk lid matched Henry Wallace's file
prints.
Police staked out Wallace's residence at the Glen Hollow
Apartments on North Sharon Amity Road throughout the evening of
March 11 and the following day. Officers Gil Allred and Sid Wright
tracked him down at a friend's house, however, where he was cuffed
at approximately 5 p.m. on March 12. According to the Report of
Arrest, the suspect was sober, "very calm and collected,"
surrendered without a fight, and seemed "a little
wrinkled". Following their supervisor's orders, the patrolmen
delivered their catch not to the customary Intake Center, but to the
Law Enforcement Center, or LEC, where a small brigade of
plainclothesmen anxiously awaited his company. They had a few
questions.
 |
| Debra Slaughter (Charlotte Observer) |
Wallace's arrest, with all its promise, had not come
auspiciously. While the detectives gathered at the LEC to greet the
alleged Strangler, another body had been found in Charlotte. Pretty
Debra Slaughter had been discovered that afternoon raped, beaten,
stabbed and choked, a white linen shoved down her windpipe. | 
