Jarniece Latonya Hargrove, a 31-year-old Black woman from the Rocky Mount area of North Carolina, was last seen by her family on April 25, 2009 and was reported missing in early May. She had also been observed walking along U.S. Highway 301 in northern Rocky Mount before she vanished. Skeletal remains later identified by dental records as Hargrove’s were found on June 29, 2009 in a wooded area near Seven Bridges Road and Old Battleboro Road between Battleboro and Whitakers. Decomposition was too advanced to establish a definitive cause or exact date of death.

Her mother said Sheriff James Knight told her investigators believed strangulation was likely, but the medical examiner could not conclusively determine how she died. Hargrove’s recovery location drew concern because several other women from the area were found dead in the same rural region, prompting a multi-agency task force and hundreds of leads. Antwan Maurice Pittman was encountered by a trooper on April 25, 2009 about 200 yards from where Hargrove’s remains were later found and was at times described as a suspect or person of interest; he was convicted in a separate murder linked to the same investigation but was never charged in Hargrove’s death. No one has been convicted of killing Jarniece Hargrove.

Did anyone who knew Jarniece or her movements in April 2009 see something that could help investigators?