Crime Junkie is examining the brutal abduction and murder of schoolgirl Brittany Locklear, who was taken from outside her home and drowned in a drainage ditch in Hoke County, North Carolina.
On January 7, 1998, Connie Locklear Chavis was waiting for the school bus with her daughter, 5-year-old Brittany. They were a mere 500 feet from their home, and the house was within their line of sight.
Connie rushed into the house to use the bathroom but left Brittany outside in case the bus turned up. When Connie returned, her daughter had vanished.
The concerned mother hoped the school bus had collected Brittany, and she went to the school to confirm that she was there. To her horror, the school said Brittany had not arrived.
Connie dialed 911, and the operator told her one of Connie’s neighbors had already contacted the police because they saw Brittany being abducted. The witness said a truck had slammed to a halt beside Brittany, and a man had jumped out of the vehicle and snatched the little girl before driving off.
Unfortunately, the witness did not get a good look at the man and could not tell the make, model, or even the truck’s color. However, the police would later receive tips about a white man in a brown truck who was in the area around the time of the abduction.
Brittany Locklear remains found just 3 miles from her home
The town mobilized a search, and two hours later, their fears grew when they found Brittany’s clothes strewn on a dirt road a couple of miles from her house.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelThe following day, Brittany’s remains were found in a drainage ditch about three miles from her home. An autopsy concluded that she had likely been sexually assaulted. Her death was caused by drowning in the drainage ditch.
Connie said of her daughter, “She loved everybody. She didn’t find no faults with anybody. And Lord, she loved going to church.”
An early suspect was Brittany’s step-grandfather, but he was never arrested.
In 2002, a firefighter at Fort Bragg (now known as Fort Liberty) was arrested for robbing a bank, and the cops found a picture of Brittany in his locker. The investigators tested his DNA with the samples taken from Brittany, but there wasn’t a match.
The police are continuing to hunt for Brittany Locklear killer
In 2015, the police organized the creation of a profile from the DNA samples; however, so far, it has not led to any arrests, and the murder remains unsolved.
In 2019, Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin told the press, “This case is still ongoing. It doesn’t feel cold to me because of what we’ve been doing… I don’t like the word ‘cold.’ I guess to simply put it, this case is not closed.”
Anyone with any information about the case should contact the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation at (800) 334-3000. There is a reward of $20,000 for any info that leads to an arrest.
MURDERED: Brittany Locklear is available to download now on Crime Junkie.