After nearly 13 years, the Fayetteville Police Department on Monday announced an arrest in the killing of Terrance Plummer on Memorial Day weekend in 2010.
At a news conference at City Hall, police officials said that former Fort Bragg soldier Joshua Richardson, 41, was arrested Feb. 7 and charged with first-degree murder in the 2010 homicide.
Jeff Locklear, the Police Department’s lead homicide investigator, said that recent and improved forensic technology was used to identify and charge Richardson, who was an active-duty soldier at the time of the murder.
Plummer, 22, was found dead with multiple stab and cut wounds in a vacant apartment on Rhew Street in May 2010.
“It was one of the more brutal murders,” said Locklear, who was also part of the early investigation of the homicide in 2010.
“All of them are important, all of them have a victim, and all of them have a victim's family,” Locklear said. “But this one, it kind of stuck with me.”
Plummer was a transgender person, but Locklear said there is no evidence the murder was a hate crime.
Terrance Plummer was the victim's legal name, according to Fayetteville police.
CityView could not confirm Plummer’s gender identity or chosen name. A chosen name is a transgender person’s actual name as opposed to their legal name. Some transgender people are unable to change their legal name to their chosen name because of financial reasons, among others, according to GLAAD, a media advocacy organization for LGBTQ people.
Richardson was arrested in Houston and was booked at the Harris County, Texas, jail, where he is awaiting extradition to Cumberland County, according to a news release from Fayetteville police.
The Army’s Criminal Investigations Division, the Wharton County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division, and the Houston Police Department’s Homicide Unit assisted Fayetteville police in arresting and charging Richardson.
At the news conference Monday, Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden said that more information about the homicide could be released as the case is prosecuted.
“What we want to inform you of today is that we did bring closure to an over 10-year-old case,” Braden said.
Ben Sessoms covers Fayetteville and education for CityView. He can be reached at bsessoms@cityviewnc.com.
