Police in North Carolina say a young woman turned her 2,800-pound Honda Accord into a murder weapon late last week when she used it to intentionally run over her lover.
"[It was] absolutely a horrible way to die," Henderson County Sheriff's Office Capt. Frank Stout told The Huffington Post.
Morgan Elizabeth Bishop, 24, of Tuxedo, is accused of killing her boyfriend, 45-year-old Roger Stewart Moody, while he walked along a local highway.
An investigation began at about 11:30 p.m. Friday. Deputies from the sheriff's office and troopers from the North Carolina Highway Patrol were dispatched to U.S. 176 in East Flat Rock to look into a hit-and-run fatality. Authorities quickly identified Moody as the victim and dispatched a patrol unit to his home address to notify his family.
Upon arrival at Moody's home, authorities found Bishop inside and examined the Honda Accord she had been driving earlier that night. Officers quickly determined the Honda was the vehicle that had allegedly been used to run down Moody.
LISTEN: 911 Audio From The Incident (May be unsuitable for some audiences)
According to Stout, officers have since learned Moody and Bishop were involved in a domestic dispute Friday evening at a residence in East Flat Rock.
"Moody had left the scene of the domestic disturbance on foot and Bishop had tried to follow," Stout said. "Once these efforts proved unsuccessful, she returned to the residence and got in her car. Upon locating Moody walking ... she allegedly ran over the victim and fled the scene."
According to Blueridgenow.com, Bishop is the mother of a 3-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. Moody was also the parent of a 17-year-old daughter. Bishop and Moody had been dating for about a year and did not have any children together.
"She was a good person," Bishop's friend, Melissa Edwards, told Blueridgenow.com. "She never hurt anyone. If you needed help, she was there."
The couple's next-door neighbor, Uwanna Vaughn, told the same newspaper that she had heard the couple argue before, but said it was, "nothing. Not a knock-down, drag-out fight."
Asked by HuffPost if police have had prior contact with Bishop and Moody, Stout said, "Yes. There has been a history. I just can't elaborate."
Bishop is charged with murder and is being held in the Henderson County detention facility in lieu of $500,000 bond. She made her first court appearance today, at which a judge denied a request to have her bond lowered. A probable cause hearing is scheduled for July 20.
If convicted, Bishop could receive the death penalty.
It is interesting to note that Bishop and Moody's Tuxedo home is located about an hour south east of Sylva, N.C., the home of another domestic violence incident that once grabbed national headlines. In 2006, Sylva resident and published crime writer John Raymond "Woody" Woodring forced his way into a domestic violence shelter and murdered his estranged wife, Bonnie.