In the relatively small town of Lumberton, North Carolina women have been turning up dead without an explanation and without a suspect. Rhonda Jones, Megan Oxendine, and Christina Bennett were 3 women dealing with their own demons when each of them were found dead. To this day, there have been no leads and no suspects, but there have been a number of other missing and murdered women in Lumberton who’s disappearances and deaths continue to be unsolved.
April 18, 2017
On April 18, 2017, at around 9:30 am officers in Lumberton, North Carolina responded to a call of a suspicious odor in an abandoned house at 505 Peachtree St. The officers showed up at the little blue house with boarded up windows and upon entering the house found that there were still pieces of furniture left behind. Apparently the owners had planned to renovate but hadn’t gotten around to it. The house was in an area that had been known for drugs and sex workers. Police searched the house for the smell which led them to the TV cabinet.
Inside the cabinet was a nude and decomposing body that had been covered by a blanket. The body was that of 32-year-old Christina “Kristin” Bennett. As usual, in a small town, neighbors were being nosy trying to see why police were in their neighborhood. While they were standing around in their yards, they noticed that one of the big green trash cans smelled worse than a typical trash can. It was actually trash day, but this can would not get picked up. The neighbors checked the trash can and when they opened the lid, they were shocked to see a human foot.
Inside the trash can just 500 feet from the house where Christina’s body was found, was the naked body of 36-year-old Rhonda Lynn Jones. The women were not the first murders like this in Lumberton and they wouldn’t be the last to follow similar patterns. In fact, only months later, the body of 28-year-old Megan Ann Oxendine would be found nude in the yard of another abandoned home in the same 4 block radius.
Their deaths are listed with undetermined causes and haven’t been listed as homicide. Is there a serial killer in this little town in North Carolina or are these more casualties of the drug and violence scene that runs rampant there?
What You Should Know About Lumberton
In the words of Megan Oxendine’s sister, Khelia Oxendine, “It’s a bad area.” Megan’s youngest sister, Taylor Oxendine reiterated with, “There’s all kinds of violent mess there.” Lumberton is the 22nd most populated county out of North Carolina’s 100 counties, but it has the “greatest prevalence of homicides of the state and holds the grim distinction of one of the nation’s most violent rural communities.” In the town, youths are 2 times more likely than other parts of the state to die before they reach age 18.
Your chances of being raped, assaulted, or killed were 1 in 55 based on data from 2016. At this time it was the most dangerous city in North Carolina. For comparison, Pinehurst (1.5 hours away) the crime rate is 69.7% lower than the national rate and 72.5% lower than the North Carolina crime rate. Where Pinehurst is the mecca of golf (where the PGA has been held and is home to the number 2 golf course) with a high population of wealthier households of doctors and other specialists, Lumberton’s population is much more disadvantaged. In Lumberton, 35.1% of their 22,000 residents live below the poverty line (the nation’s is 31%) and the county’s median household income is $31,000 (the national median is $59,000).
40% of the county’s population are members of the Lumbee Indian tribe (a state recognized tribe – 2 of the 3 victims were Lumbee) and more than 68% of the population are American Indian, black, and hispanic. Making Lumberton the most diverse city in North Carolina. The 4 block radius where the bodies were found and some surrounding streets have been notoriously “crime-ridden” and very heavily covered with drugs, homeless people, and sex workers.
On top of all this, the sheriff’s department has a history of corruption. The Robeson County Sheriff, Burnis Wilkins didn’t appreciate the way the previous administration dealt with the cases of the “disenfranchised” and a 2005 investigation caused 22 people to lose their jobs. It was called Operation Tarnished Badge and it found that people in the sheriff’s office were involved in kidnapping, drug trafficking, and money laundering.
Christina Bennett
Megan Oxendine’s family has been the most outspoken so we have more information on her, but here’s what we know about Christina Bennett. Christina Noel Bennett grew up in New York and when she was 24, she and her boyfriend moved to Maxton, North Carolina. Once they moved, Christina got involved in drugs. The mother of 3 decided that she wanted to get clean and sober, so she signed over her parental rights to a friend and moved to Lumberton. Christina frequently called her kids and talked to them on every birthday, but in the fall of 2014, she stopped reaching out to them.
Then on April 18, 2017, her body was found dead in the TV cabinet of an abandoned home at 505 Peachtree Street.
Rhonda Jones
Rhonda Jones originally wasn’t from Lumberton either. She actually grew up in Virginia and moved to North Carolina in 2016 to go to school. As she grew up she became involved in the American Indian Mothers Inc. — a “nonprofit organization that serves the needs of American Indians and minorities in North Carolina.” Rhonda was a member of the Lumbee tribe and some people thought she would eventually become the person who ran the American Indian Mothers Inc.
Rhonda had also had a hard time with drugs though. She lost custody of her 5 kids to their father, but she was trying to pull it back together (just like Christina). On April 17th, 2017, Rhonda was supposed to have a court date to get visitation. She had attended rehab in March to combat her crack addiction. She never made it to her court date.
Instead, her body was found the same day as Christina Bennett’s on April 18th in a trash can outside 702 E. 5th Street. Rhonda’s body wasn’t identified right away because she didn’t have ID on her and the only identifying marks on her was a large tattoo on her leg. However, because the area is small and people know each other, people in the area knew who the body in the trash can was. One of those people was Megan Oxendine.
Megan Oxendine
Megan Oxendine had been a friend of Rhonda’s, but unlike Rhonda, Megan was born and raised in the area. She grew up in Pembroke only 12 miles from Lumberton with her 2 sisters. Megan was also a member of the Lumbee tribe and enjoyed being a country girl. She loved fishing and animals. At one time she wanted to be a veterinarian. Megan was called “good-hearted” and loved her 9-year-old daughter fiercely.
Megan moved to Lumberton and began her struggle with drugs which got worse when she started using heroin in 2016. Megan had “prostitution charges” that were pending in Robeson County and had a court date in July of 2017.
When Rhonda Jones’ body was found, Megan was interviewed by the local news. Megan called Rhonda “sweet and kind.” She said of Rhonda, “I ain’t never seen her act out or nothing. She’s just quiet. She didn’t really mess with too many people…I don’t understand how people could do somebody’s child, mother, niece like that.” In this interview, Megan had a black backpack on her back.
Only 2 weeks after her television interview, Megan was attacked. She was jumped by about 5 people who cut her hair and beat her up. She told her mom about the attack and her mom called the police. Megan wouldn’t talk to the police though. Both the police and Megan’s mom felt that Megan knew more than she was telling. Her mom even thought that maybe Megan knew something about Rhonda’s murder, because after Rhonda died, Megan began acting differently.
Police had plans to follow up with Megan about her attack, but they didn’t get the chance. On June 3, 2017, Megan’s nude body was found under branches and roof shingles in the unmowed brush of another abandoned house at 608 E. 8th Street, just about 500 feet from where the bodies of Christina and Rhonda were found. While Megan was also naked, she was lying on top of her shirt. Her black backpack seen in the news interview was found in a trash can. After Megan’s body was found, the Lumberton Police Department knew they needed help and called in the FBI.
Similarities Between the Girls
Upon autopsy for all three women it was determined that their causes of death were “undetermined.” None are currently classified as homicides.
All three women struggled with drug addiction and drugs would be found in their systems upon autopsy. Since these women had histories with drug abuse, there was also a theory that they could have been partying with someone, OD’d and whoever they were with disposed of them. However, there is no note of the levels of the drugs in their systems or adverse interactions, but the medical examiner did not make this the cause of death so it’s unlikely that OD was the cause of death for any of the women.
Christina’s autopsy showed no signs of trauma due to the decomposition of her body. The medical examiner was unable to rule out things like strangulation or compression because she wasn’t able to accurately identify damage to the soft tissue. Toxicology showed that Christina had cocaine in her system as well as nerve medication and nicotine.
Rhonda’s autopsy showed much of the same findings. Her toxicology showed cocaine, antihistamines, cough medication, an ingredient in Prozac, and nicotine. There were signs of trauma because her nose was broken and she had cuts and lacerations, but they were unable to determine if these were before or after death. While decomposition made it impossible to see external signs of strangulation, internally there were some signs that could indicate she was strangled. She had a fracture to part of her hyoid bone and there was some soft tissue damage near the right side of the hyoid, but her hyoid was not fully broken.
At Megan’s autopsy, they found cocaine in her system along with nicotine, caffeine, and morphine. The medical examiner wrote in her report that an “instrument” was used, but made no guesses about what it could be. Megan also reportedly had a blow to the back of her head and something stuffed in her mouth
There were missteps in the working of these cases. One of the big ones was that the rape kits from the bodies weren’t submitted for over a year and a half. Megan Oxendine’s sister, Shirlyn Whitaker expressed the frustration that the families felt finding this out, “Evidence sat on that shelf for 21 months. Kristin Bennett, Lumberton Police told the medical examiner to discard of the blanket she was wrapped in…I didn’t even finish high school, but I have enough common sense to think, when doing a murder investigation, that may have evidence.”
In the autopsy report for Christina Bennett it reads: “The grey blanket is disposed of at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner at the request of law enforcement.”
Other Missing Women
Unfortunately, these three women aren’t the only unsolved or missing persons cases in this relatively small town. Only a few months after these three, two more women disappeared.
First was 41-year-old Cynthia “Twister” Jacobs. Cynthia was in and out of foster care growing up and had lived a hard life involving drugs. She was finally trying to get clean from her drug addiction. She had been to rehab and spent some time in prison in North Carolina. However, back in May 2017, before Megan’s body was found, Cynthia stopped showing up to any of her appointments. She was last seen on July 27, 2017 on Chippewa Street. She hasn’t been seen or heard from since and her body has never been found.
Cynthia was 41-years-old in 2017 (making her about 44-45 now). She is 5’6” and at the time was about 110 pounds. She has the name “Chris” tattooed on her chest. Cynthia has black/brown hair and brown eyes and is part of the Lumbee tribe.
Then in September 2017, 20-year-old Abby Patterson moved back to Lumberton after a stint in rehab in Florida. She had been struggling with a heroin addiction and, like the other women, was finally trying to get clean. She was only in town a few days when on the 5th, she texted her mom around 11:30 AM to tell her that she’d been running errands for about an hour. She was seen by at least one witness getting into a brown Buick down the street from her mom’s house on East 9th Street. The driver was investigated and was determined to be a friend who dropped her off at a different location.
Her mom called her multiple times without getting an answer and by that night her calls were going straight to voicemail. Around 6 PM, Abby’s mom called the police to report Abby missing. However, the police don’t think that Abby’s disappearance is linked to Christina, Rhonda, and Megan because, “she wasn’t out on the streets.”
Abby Lynn Patterson was 20-years-old in 2017 (making her about 24-25 now). She is 5’7” and when she disappeared she weighed 140 lbs. Abby has a tattoo of 3 birds on the back of her right shoulder and a dark-colored birthmark on the back of her right thigh. There is a $5,000 reward for information.
Other women who were found dead before Christina, Rhonda, and Megan were never solved, and it was said that there was no evidence they were connected to these 3 murders.
Back on March 30, 2003, 23-year-old Michelle Ann Driggers was found in a driveway of a small cemetery with overgrown grass. She was nude, beaten, and her clothes were scattered around her. She had been hit in the head with a blunt object. Michelle had a history of sex work.
32-year-old Lisa Harden also had a history of sex work and on July 12, 2003, her body was found in the woods behind a warehouse off Chippewa Street. (Also the last place Cynthia was seen.)
Current State of the Cases
As of April of 2021, there are still no suspects of solid leads, but reportedly they have some new evidence. A North Carolina Bureau of Investigations (NCBI) special agent involved with the case said “We can’t really discuss any specific evidence that we have in the case. But, I will say I do believe that we have promising evidence. And that’s all I can say.”
The agent went on to say:
“There’s no change to the investigation. Whether this is labeled a homicide. Or whether this is labeled an undetermined deaths. We are still putting forth the same amount of effort. The same amount of hours. The same amount of resources and I think the fact that we have the reward out there. The fact that we’ve done so many interviews. The fact that we have consulted with so many different departments. We’ve had analysts working this. We’ve had behavioral analysis unit working days. I think that goes to show it doesn’t matter what the label says. We are still putting the same amount of effort into this. We are putting a lot of effort into finding out who placed them they are. Because it’s obvious they didn’t place themselves there. And that is, our investigation, is to determine who did that. What offender did that?”
Authorities have called in the Behavioral Analysis Unit to help them get an idea of what kind of suspect they are dealing with. The BAU said that this suspect may have left the community after the murders and if they didn’t leave they likely changed their behavior or MO. BAU suggested that the suspect may have started drinking heavily and may have quit their job. They feel that this suspect may have told someone what they did and the confidante may have just brushed it off.
NCBI and the Lumberton police department have spent thousands of hours on these cases and said they have conducted more than 500 interviews and knocked on more than 800 doors during door-to-door canvassing. They have handed out thousands of flyers.
Rhonda Jones’ mother, Sheila Price has a memorial near where her daughter’s body was found. She also created a group called Shatter the Silence that started as a Facebook group in 2018 and is now working on getting nonprofit status. The purpose of the group is to raise awareness for the deaths of these 3 women, but also for all the other unsolved murders in Robeson County. Sheila spends over 60 hours a week working to get her group’s name out there as well as raise awareness of problems in the community, and making sure that other victims’ families know they aren’t alone in this.
Sheila and her daughter (Megan’s sister) Shirlyn have been making lists of the missing and murdered women in Lumberton. They were up to 377 at the most recent count documented in news articles.
Sheila Price said, “I didn’t get to bury my baby. She was too decomposed. I had to cremate my daughter. I’m not giving up. I ain’t gonna stop fighting. I might rest a little while, but I won’t never stop.” She also said, “It’s killing me. I promise you, it’s killing me. Four years. I’m so tired. I haven’t lived since this happened…I’m so mad and angry and tired. This ain’t my job. Ain’t no one paying me to be a private investigator, but we ain’t going to stop.”
Sheila believes wholeheartedly that these 3 murders are connected.
FBI special agent John Strong said, “We owe it to each of these women, we owe it to their families, we owe it to this community to put together the pieces of the puzzle and to provide the answers of what happened in it.”
In April, the FBI raised the reward for information to $40,000 for information leading to a conviction.
- FBI Charlotte for Special Agent Glenn – (704) 672-6100
- Lumberton Police Department – (910) 671-3845
