NC NC - Jenna Nielsen, 22, pregnant, Raleigh, 14 June 2007

Raleigh — During a candlelight vigil for an unborn baby that died last month when his mother was murdered, scores of people called Monday for a state law to make killing a pregnant woman a double murder.

Nielsen is the third pregnant woman killed in the Triangle in just over two years. Michelle Young was found beaten to death in her Wake County home in November. Janet Abaroa was found stabbed to death in her Durham home in April 2005.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1573111/


I think it should be a law because Unborn babies are people too

Is there a thread somewhere for Jenna Nielson, the pregnant newspaper carrier who was murdered? I just read the autopsy report and came directly here to read more but I can't find her anywhere which surprises me. Could someone link me or at least point me in the right direction? Thanks!

I know that there was. If you go back through the pages on the forum that you are in now you are sure to find her.

I wonder if they will ever catch the person who murdered her. I saw the story about Jenna on one of the programs the other night. She was such a cutie...loved her job and was looking forward to the birth of her 3rd little boy. They said that the baby was over 6 lbs and totally healthy. They just didn't find Jenna soon enough to save the baby.

It was also said that she fought her attacker. They figure that he came up behind her and held a knife to her throat and when she resisted the knife cut an artery that caused her to bleed to death right away.

I just wonder if the guy who killed her was just drifting through that town and is long gone now. I hope they catch him because he should have to pay for what he did to that beautiful mom and wife.

I read that her pants and underwear were pulled down below her knees and they think it may have been an attempted rape. I dunno, these pregnant ones, I think they get me the most.

trixie said:

I read that her pants and underwear were pulled down below her knees and they think it may have been an attempted rape. I dunno, these pregnant ones, I think they get me the most.

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Yes, I remember hearing that too. What kind of a monster would try and rape a big and pregnant woman :banghead: I hope they catch him so we can find out just who this sicko is and see him go to prison of course.

I've looked through all of the pages here and I can't find her story anywhere. I know it is here somewhere. Do you have any idea?

http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50541&highlight=pregnant+newspaper

I'll merge them

Thank you! For some reason I couldn't find this anywhere!:doh:

I don't find it curious at all that she enjoyed delievering papers. I love working! It gives me a chance to feel like I'm more than just "Mom" (not that that title isn't enough! I love my son, but before him I worked so being home with him all day kinda depressed me).

trixie said:

Is there a thread somewhere for Jenna Nielson, the pregnant newspaper carrier who was murdered? I just read the autopsy report and came directly here to read more but I can't find her anywhere which surprises me. Could someone link me or at least point me in the right direction? Thanks!

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where did you find the autopsy report?....can you post a link?

Anybody seen this yet? (or maybe I'm just way behind )
http://justice4jenna.weebly.com/

The photos are a bit heartbreaking to look at now. Lots of her wedding.

Columbo said:

I also hate to think it's the husband but I noticed a few things, too. Not only body size similar to the composite description. Am I hallucinating or did anyone else see the camera zoom in on his forearm at one of the press conferences, and it looked like he has big tattooed letters on his forearm? Like a gang member? Hmmmm.

The more he says, the more I wonder about him. Why is he so adamant that the killing wasn't random, but that the murderer "had a reason for being there"?

In a picture of Tim with Jenna and their kids, he looks VERY stressed or unhappy--something wrong there. It doesn't make him a killer, but ya gotta wonder.

You are right, the stab wounds could indicate if the assailant was known to her and thus had easier access to her (that sounds so awful, sorry). It occurred to me that the murderer might have been hired (although with their money situation that might have been impossible). The murderer might have been the person to provide the "composite" to the police, and invented a composite which looks like a blend of Jenna and Tim out of his imagination or subconscious. I do wonder where the composite came from.

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Interesting you should say that, both my husband and myself think that composite looks exactly like Jenna. In the autopsy report her hair was even described as being tied back at the nape of her neck. I think something weird is going on with this eyewitness and composite sketch. It's just too much of a weird coincidence.

trixie said:

Anybody seen this yet? (or maybe I'm just way behind )
http://justice4jenna.weebly.com/

The photos are a bit heartbreaking to look at now. Lots of her wedding.

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i hadn't seen this slideshow, so thanks for posting it....yes, it's heartbreaking

oh, & thanks for posting the autopsy.....soooooo sad for this beautiful young woman, her children & entire family....

The slideshow is heartbreaking

Were there any life insurance policies?

This is just such a tragedy.

At the time that the husband was explaining how much his wife "loved" her job "so much", my first thought was ????at 8 months pregnant????? I personally have never met anybody who enjoyed physical labor at 8 months pregnant & found that statement VERY ODD.

First thought subsequent, hope LE seriously searches any camera tapes of all businesses in that town in those early morning hours for other auto's.

altruist1000 said:

This is just such a tragedy.

At the time that the husband was explaining how much his wife "loved" her job "so much", my first thought was ????at 8 months pregnant????? I personally have never met anybody who enjoyed physical labor at 8 months pregnant & found that statement VERY ODD.

First thought subsequent, hope LE seriously searches any camera tapes of all businesses in that town in those early morning hours for other auto's.

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I wonder what kind of pregnancies she had? My own personal experience with pregnancy is that I have never felt healthier in my life! I had 4 boys in 5 years and another boy 4 years later, and those months of pregnancy stand out in my memory as such wonderful times. I felt energetic, powerful, sort of "in tune with God" whatever that means! I actually felt BETTER pregnant than not!

This girl reminds me of myself in some ways, the little ones so close together I guess. Maybe I'm just putting her in my shoes, but I can totally understand her love of her job. Heck, just going to the grocery store by myself was a big deal, I used to think it was worthy of makeup and high heels!

Delivering the paper was a job she had before her pregnancy, and most people work up until just before the birth of their children and then return six weeks later, so even if her love for her job may have been a little hard to hold onto in her eighth month, I can see her looking beyond this pregnancy and wanting to keep the job.

Some interesting points some of you have brought up, particularly the POI being of similar size to the husband.

Some people LOVE being pregnant and this was her 3rd. Her entire family reports that she loved doing it and was happy. It was her "alone time" - before her husband went to work - she probably napped with her two little ones during the day. They are Mormon, just not real "strict" Mormons based on her attire. They often marry young and have large families and in that faith, three at her age would not be unusual at all.

I do not feel the composite looks like her husband at all - the hair is totally wrong his is VERY VERY SHORT - the description says long (to middle of shoulder blades) straight and black and the very pronounced abdominal muscles don't LOOK like they'd be on her husband. Her husband seems to be more like 5'9-ish standing next to her. Also supposed to be Hispanic? Not wearing a belt? This person had on a ripped off t-shirt? How else would someone see the muscles close enough to describe them and know the pants were baggy and no belt? No facial hair? Doesn't husband have facial hair? Anyone know how long Jenna's hair was when she died? The newer pics it looks to be shorter than the middle of shoulder blades. And yes, the composite looks like a WOMAN to me - very peculiar - so feminine in the eyebrows and facial structure. They say the description is from a witness but it is SO specific and detailed - it was dark - who could have seen and recalled that much detail? Maybe the COMPOSITE is partly from a video? The 911 caller was reportedly Hispanic (spoke Spanish) also?

The husband was probably at home with the children at 3AM when she was killed. Did he run out on the kids, locate her on her route, strangle her, cut her neck, drive home, clean up himself and his car and get back into bed? FranklyI would wonder a LOT more if he DID have an alibi - he SHOULDN'T have one - it would be perfectly normal for him to be home asleep. They also found "a bloody knife", did it have fingerprints, not his? LE is keeping so much confidential it's hard to put much together. Her husband and her Father worked at the same place - her Father would surely have known if he was acting weird? They lived with her Father and wife until just a few weeks before she was killed when they got a 2 bed apt they were stretching to pay for, but they needed it with another baby on the way. Her brother found her the Newspaper job - she was helping pay the bills for the apt and saving for the baby. Probably no life insurance on her at all. The husband DID call 911 when she didn't get home at the usual time and when the police showed up he was leaving to go out to look for her.

I think it may have started out as a sexual assault until he realized she was pregnant. I doubt there was time for any staging to just make it look that way - her car was in view and looked suspicious. I think he did it and ran/drove away ASAP - bloody too. They haven't said if there was a rape or DNA. If there was that may exclude the husband. Her family seems certain he is innocent. My gut says he isn't involved. No warnings, family right there, her brother and her Dad had been seeing him daily and her almost daily. Everyone reports them happy, said she LIKED her job, wasn't afraid, he wasn't forcing her to work, they/he/she were happy and excited about Ethen. Money was tight but they were making it.

LE is holding too much infor for anyone to really help - they must have a reason - perhaps suspect is an illegal? Perhaps A WITNESS is an illegal? If they had ANY solid evidence it was the husband he'd be in jail. NC has some really funny "investigations" though - this is what the 3rd or 4th pregnant woman in recent months and even MORE in last 18 mos or so. Wasn't there another Mormon pregnant woman killed in the last year or two and still unsolved?

My Opinion

I don't think the 911 caller was spanish - I remember hearing the tape .. he sounded VERY credible - also referred to the owner of her car as a "he" .. I felt he would see the car on his rounds - but not HER .. He assumed that the carrier was a male - not a female. I also thought I heard where they were able to follow up with the 911 caller - he provided his home phone number I believe on the call. He called it in not as he was seeing it - but a bit later .. as though seeing the car nagged at him to the point he felt he should call it in.

altruist1000 said:

This is just such a tragedy.

At the time that the husband was explaining how much his wife "loved" her job "so much", my first thought was ????at 8 months pregnant????? I personally have never met anybody who enjoyed physical labor at 8 months pregnant & found that statement VERY ODD.

First thought subsequent, hope LE seriously searches any camera tapes of all businesses in that town in those early morning hours for other auto's.

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Hee hee, those were my thoughts too. I had an office job the first time I was pregnant and I could barely carry around my papers etc at 8 mos! There are others here that think otherwise though, and totally enjoyed their "me" time while driving around/working at night.

Not me. At 8 mos I wanted to be sitting down having my back and feet rubbed. :crazy:

The husband does appear to be eager and forthright, so I have him lower down on the POI list than say, someone like Jason Young (Michelle Young case). I just hope he's been checked out thoroughly. And I really hope they find the murderer in this case SOON. How scary to have someone like that running around free.

The knife that was found was found several days after the murder, and it was about a quarter mile from where the murder allegedly took place. It was bloody and was found by a man who said he got scared, and threw it over the fence. Then he called law enforcement later.

I live in Raleigh, and part of the NCSU campus backs right up to where this happened. I've driven by it several times, and I can't understand why the police didn't search the area where the knife was found. There were only two entrances to the gas station, both off of one street. There were woods surrounding the place on one side and in the back, and a business fenced off on the other side. When I drove by the day it happened, LE had roped off the gas station and seemed to be thinking about searching the woods. I guess it never happened. I should have gone through them that week, as now any evidence is probably gone.

But assuming the path that the murderer took was in the direction of where the knife was found, he/she didn't have many options of where to go. All of the streets until about a mile later are dead end streets. About a mile past the gas station is a light - on one side there is a public park and the others lead to streets that go downtown. I don't remember LE branching out to look around these places.

There are a lot of possibilities here. There are many homeless people in Raleigh - I go to NCSU and I see them on the streets stopping people for money and at a few lights with signs all the time. There's a shelter downtown, called the Wilmington St. Shelter, it's a man's homeless shelter and every morning all the inhabitants are kicked out. But there's also a rise in gangs in Raleigh, so I wouldn't rule that out.

As for the husband, I highly doubt he's involved. From what I've heard/seen of him, he was a loving husband and is a loving father.