Virginia murder suspect caught
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 30, 2015 1:46 PM
Acting on information from the Norfolk, Va., Police Department, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office and N.C. State Bureau of Investigation teamed up Monday to locate a second-degree murder suspect in an 8-year-old homicide investigation.
The suspect has been in Wayne County since at least 2011, the sheriff's office said.
Michael Ryan Brown, 27, 122 Cadel Lane, is charged with second-degree murder and is being held today in the Wayne County Detention Center awaiting extradition to Virginia.
Maj. Tom Effler of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said he could not verify whether Brown is from Goldsboro or has been hiding out here since the murder.
"I can tell you he has at least been here for a while," Effler said.
Law enforcement has recorded some minor arrests on him, charges going back to 2011, he added.
"I don't have anything on him before that," Effler said.
According to a press release issued by Norfolk police, Brown is suspected in the January 2008 murder of Angela Lechlitner, whose body was discovered inside her residence in the 2400 block Shafer Street in Norfolk. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide, yet the case remained unsolved.
The Norfolk Police Department Homicide Unit and Cold Case Unit kept at it, however, and throughout the course of their investigation, identified Brown as a suspect.
Norfolk police then went to work with the N.C. SBI, developing evidence in the case against Brown, the press release said.
On Monday, a warrant was secured for Brown's arrest on charges of second-degree murder, and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office was contacted to locate and arrest Brown.
Within hours, Brown was taken into custody without incident following a traffic stop conducted after 5 p.m. by the Sheriff's Office Aggressive Criminal Enforcement (ACE) Team on N.C. Highway 111 South.
A date has not yet been set to send Brown back to Virginia to face prosecution.