People in this chapter · Dee Sumpter

The families asked why it took so long to see the cases together. In later interviews with The Charlotte Observer, former homicide detective Garry McFadden said he believed the race of the victims and the neighborhoods where many of them lived shaped the police response. Dee Sumpter also believed a wealthier neighborhood would have drawn greater attention. Former detective Darrell Price disputed that race determined how detectives handled the cases. McFadden and Price both described heavy caseloads and gaps in communication across investigations. The Observer reported that Charlotte-Mecklenburg averaged more than 105 killings annually during 1992–94 and that the department increased detective staffing and created a cold-case unit after Wallace’s arrest. These accounts show where people agreed about the department’s practices and where they differed about the role race played. The Charlotte Observer’s reporting on the investigation

Dee Sumpter, Judy Williams and David Howard started a support group on March 29, 1993, weeks after Shawna’s death. It became Mothers of Murdered Offspring, a Charlotte nonprofit serving families bereaved by homicide. The group grew from a need the founders were living through before police had identified the man who killed Shawna. The organization and WSOC’s interviews document a response to the loss that began well before the trial and continued long after it. Mothers of Murdered Offspring · WSOC interview with Dee Sumpter

Other families have told the story through the people who survived. The Observer interviewed Tyrece Woods, Brandi Henderson’s son, about growing up without his mother. Its reporting on Barbara Rippy followed her efforts to keep Vanessa Mack’s daughters together and to give them a home. The paper has also published a separate tribute featuring photographs of the women and accounts of their lives. Those accounts record years of responsibility, care and grief that fall beyond the events described in the court opinion. Tyrece Woods interview · Barbara Rippy and the Mack family · Victim profiles and photographs

Prison spotlight. North Carolina’s Department of Adult Correction lists Wallace on death row, with a January 29, 1997, reception date and Mecklenburg County as the county of conviction. The department houses men under death sentences at Central Prison in Raleigh. The site opened in 1884 as the state’s first penitentiary. WSOC reported in 2011 that Wallace had filed a claim under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act. The North Carolina Supreme Court has since ruled, in a different case, that the repeal of that law could not constitutionally be applied retroactively to defeat the claim at issue there. The current prison roster records Wallace’s custody and does not supply a case-specific ruling on his claim. State death row roster · Central Prison · WSOC report on Wallace’s filing · State v. Ramseur, 374 N.C. 658