The forgotten victims of violent death

Approximately 20,000 murders occurred in the United States in 2023. These killings ranged in scope from gang battles to domestic violence. 

Pheasant pleads guilty to 2013 cold case murder

Over a decade after Marie Walkingstick Pheasant’s body was found in a burned-out vehicle in Cherokee, the community has finally received a modicum of closure as her husband, Ernest Dwayne Pheasant, has pleaded guilty to committing the murder. 

Three dead in alleged Haywood County murder-suicide

The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a possible murder in the Panther Creek area of Clyde.  

Cherokee man charged in wife’s murder from 10 years ago

A Swain County man is facing a federal charge for allegedly killing his wife in 2013, announced Dena J. King U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. 

Cherokee man arrested in cold case murder

Nearly a decade after 26-year-old Marie Walkingstick Pheasant’s body was found in a burned-out vehicle in Cherokee’s Big Cove community, her husband Ernest Dwayne Pheasant, 46, has been arrested for her murder. 

Arrest made in Big Cove cold case murder

Nearly a decade after 26-year-old Marie Walkingstick Pheasant’s body was found in a burned-out vehicle in Cherokee’s Big Cove community, an arrest has been made for her murder.

District Attorney seeks death penalty in Otto murder case

District Attorney Ashley Welch will seek the death penalty in the odd and heinous murder case of Tina Walkingstick Frizsell. 

What is the cost of mass murder?

To the Editor:

What is the typical cost of a mass murder? My bet is that it is very expensive. Maybe there is someone or a company that can show us the cost. Like you would arrive at the cost of a professional football game. Or a country music concert. We know that those events have costs and benefits. Mass murders have no benefits.

Man faces murder charges in Kobe Toineeta death

The Cherokee community is mourning the death of Kobe Toineeta, 25, who died by homicide Friday, Nov. 11. 

Murder, bibliophiles, and a B&B

In “A Fatal Booking” (Crooked Lane Books, 2022, 304 pages), Victoria Gilbert’s third novel in her series “Booklovers B&B Mysteries,” we again meet Charlotte Reed, owner of Chapters Bed-and-Breakfast in Beaufort, North Carolina. Charlotte is a former school teacher and 40-something widow who has inherited this inn from her great-aunt Isabella. With a passion for books and reading, Charlotte remodels the old mansion, turning it into a literary lovers paradise. 

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