DNA helps crack 1986 murder case

WHITEVILLE — Advances in DNA technology have led to an arrest in the 21-year-old murder of Zelma Sibbett Walters, a Columbus County sheriff’s spokesman said.

Terrence Levon Munn remained jailed at the Columbus County Detention Center without bail following a first appearance hearing Wednesday morning.

Munn, of Newark, N.J., was suspected in the death of Walters, who was 79 when she died in 1986, before the widespread use of DNA testing.

Blood found on Munn’s jacket was tested by the SBI several years later, but technicians said the sample was too old. Advances in DNA technology made a new analysis possible, former sheriff’s Capt. George Dudley said.

On May 11, the Sheriff’s Office issued a warrant for Munn, who was arrested the next day after a wreck in Hillside, N.J.

A rookie police officer running a routine check of Munn’s driver’s license discovered the North Carolina warrant had been entered in a national computer database, Capt. David Nobles said. Munn is 48.

Walters was stabbed more than 20 times in the chest and arms at her home outside Whiteville. Her daughter found the body in bed, fully clothed and wrapped in an electric blanket, investigators said at the time.

A fire discovered in the living room appeared to have been deliberately set, possibly in an attempt to cover up the murder, Nobles said.

“The fire burned a hole in the floor,” Nobles said. “I believe her daughter extinguished it.”

Munn was identified as a suspect soon after the murder, Nobles said, but investigators did not have enough evidence tying him to Walters or her home.

A key piece of evidence, Munn’s bloodstained jacket, offered a good lead, Dudley said Wednesday.

“Originally, we took his jacket and blood samples from her and had it compared,” Dudley said. “The analysis was that there was a big probability of it being her blood, but back then they didn’t have DNA.”

Nobles said he and Mack Warner, a State Bureau of Investigation agent, took a fresh look at the case last year, and resubmitted evidence to the SBI laboratory in Raleigh. While Nobles would not discuss the physical evidence, he said the new analysis was critical to the case.

“Technology has changed,” he said.

Dudley said he watched a television program on advances in DNA analysis recently.

“I told my wife that if our evidence was resubmitted now, we might make a case,” Dudley said. “About two or three weeks later, Mack and David came by and said they had done that.”

Dudley, who is retired, said he is reviewing the case file in case he’s called to testify. He said he’s gratified that new technology has given this investigation new life.

“I’m glad we’ve finally got some evidence to take it to court, anyway,” Dudley said.