Police seek clues in cemetery deaths
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on September 15, 2009 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
The body of Martavia Shevon Royster was found beside this tombstone in the Carver Cemetery in Mount Olive on Sunday afternoon. The body of Tigko DeJantè King was found nearby. Both had been shot to death. Mount Olive police were still investigating the deaths today.
MOUNT OLIVE -- Mount Olive police say they have theories, but will not speculate publicly on motive in the deaths of a 16-year-old Virginia girl and her 29-year-old boyfriend, found in a local cemetery Sunday.
Police did say, however, that they do not believe anyone but the couple played a role in the deaths at Carver Cemetery.
"The physical evidence would lead us to believe that there's no one else involved, so no one has to worry about attacks in the cemetery or anything like that," Sgt. C.J. Weaver said.
Police Chief Ralph Schroeder said the male victim, who was found after the 16-year-old, was Tigko DeJantè King, 29, of East Nelson Street, Mount Olive.
The female victim was Martavia Shevon Royster, 16, of East Kornegay Street, who had only been in Mount Olive for about three months, Weaver said.
Police did not release Miss Royster's name until this morning, as she had family still traveling to Mount Olive to talk with police, Weaver said.
"The last family members came into town last night, so as soon as we talked to them, we were free to release (Miss Royster's) ... name," Weaver said.
Miss Royster has family in both Illinois and Virginia, the detective said. She had not yet enrolled in school, the police chief said.
Officers first found Miss Royster's body in the southwestern corner of the cemetery, along Carver Road, Schroeder said.
King's body was found near a tree line, on the northwest corner in a separate section of Carver Cemetery, which is adjacent to the old Carver School, the chief said.
King had a minor criminal record in Wayne County, pleading guilty in 2004 to misdemeanor possession of marijuana and resisting police, court records show.
Weaver said that further information was pending the release of autopsies by the N.C. Medical Examiner's Office, and also forensic testing of physical evidence by the State Bureau of Investigation's lab.
"Investigation is still open pending those results," Weaver said.