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• •••••••• • • • • • • • • Hot eats for cheap: A Treat your mouth and your w^let ^ your Looking forward: "7 Brownell prepares for third season I June 3, 2004 Volume LV, Number 27 Serving UNC Wilmington since 1948 Murder of UNCW student shocks campus KiARA Jones News Editor The last day of classes, Wednesday, May 5, marked the murder of UNCW sophomore Jessica Lee Faulkner. Faulkner, 18, was found dead in the third- floor room of Curtis Timothy Dixon in Cornerstone Hall. Faulkner, from Cary, had been strack on the head with a blunt object and strangled, according to an article in the Star News. Dixon, a 21-year-old fresh man from Charlotte, was taken into custody within 10 minutes of the UNCW Campus Police Department’s notification. Later te afternoon, the UNCW Police received assistance from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney’s Office to officially charge Dixon with first- degree murder, according to a press release issued by the cam pus police. The next day, additional charg es of first-degree rape, first- degree sexual offense and first- degree kidnapping were filed against Dixon. In an article in the Star News, : iohn Faulkner was reported to : tave called the New Hanover 911 Center on Wednesday to check on his daughter after being unable to contact her. He informed the dispatcher that he had received a call at his home in Cary “from one of her classmates that says he’s murdered her.” Faulkner was unaware that his daughter’s body had aheady been found in Cornerstone Hall. When he had called UNCW police earlier, they had told him they were looking for a suspect. Faulkner replied that he did not care about the sus pect, “I want to know the status of my daughter.” He had called Courtesy ot New Hanover County Sheriff's Dept Curtis Dixon has been charged with first degree kidnapping, rape, murder and sexual assault. campus police twice, but was dis pleased with their response time. Faulkner went on to say that a boy had been stalking his daugh ter around for quite a long time, but he thought that “had gone by the wayside.” He knew that the young man’s first name was Curtis. “He’s a fellow student. Visit Us www.theseahawk.org OP/ED 3 He basically wanted to date my daughter. She refused to date him. He basically called this . moming and said he mxirdered her,” Faulkner said to the 911 dispatcher, according to the Star News. Faulkner’s funeral was on May 11. The incident seemed out of character for Dixon, according to Rich Haag, the father of Michael Haag, a fnend that Dixon phoned before he was arrested. “This is clearly a person we value and love. He is bright, creative, ftmny and gifted, and he has been a very close part of the family for six years,” Haag said. Family members could not pro vide an explanation for Dixon’s behavior. “I just know he was a person we love and trusted. We’re heartbroken for Curtis and heart broken for the family of Jessica. The pain has been tremendous,” the Star News article stated. Dixon enrolled in UNCW last fall, lying on his application to do so. Dixon wrote that he had no prior criminal record, but in fact had been prosecuted for misde meanor larceny. This tragic incident is shocking in more ways than one. According to a WECT 6 news report by Aaron Saykin, the Ku Klux Klan hotline used Faulkner’s murder as a recruiting tool. “Ladies and gentlemen, anoth er young white woman has been raped and murdered,” the record Inside This issue ing says. The recording refers to Dixon as a “savage” and uses racial slurs. The hotline is regis- games. There’s realism to what I’m doing here, in my role as how God uses me. I spent 30 minutes Andrew BaJerAhe Seahawk Cornerstone Hall sits empty for the summer sessions. Faulkner was found dead May 5 in Dixon’s Cornerstone residence. Parts of the building were closed to students for hours as police secured the location. tered to a KKK political organiza tion from Henderson. “Add to that horrible resume the fact that they want to take the blood of this young woman and expleit it for political purposes, and I predict it will backfire,” said Mike Adams, UNCW sociology expert. This tragedy has affected the UNCW campus on many fronts. Glen Titus, campus minister of Campus Christian Fellowship, reacted to the news of the mur der. “My first reaction was [the realization] that my position as campus minister is not all fun and down at the beach praying, trying to get a handle on it,” he said. “A lot of college students seem to think they are invincible, that they have 20, 30 or 70 more years to be prosperous; they claim self-suffi- ciency, when in reality, something like this happens.” Dixon is being held without bond while prosecutors are trying to decide if they will try this as a death penalty case. Faulkner’s death marks the sec ond UNCW student death in as many months. Jeffery Leigh Irby, 23, died of unknown causes in his bed in late March. No foul play is suspected in that case. UNCW Life 4 Classifieds 6 Sports 7 Contact Us Editorial: 962-3229 Ads: 962-3789 t r£i
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June 3, 2004, edition 1
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