Major Bruce Temple of the Halifax County Sheriff's Office said the female victim, who was beaten and stabbed more than 20 times is recuperating well after being left for dead in an isolated part of the subdivision.
He said the stabbing was the carrying out of an alleged plot to kill the woman, who is from Jarratt, Virginia.
Temple said investigation revealed the motive in the case was related to drugs but declined elaboration.
The plan was allegedly to kill the woman in Virginia and dispose the body in North Carolina. They allegedly planned to return to Virginia to destroy evidence.
Temple said investigators verified the victim went to the suspects' residence in Emporia, where they all lived together, with intentions of riding with them to visit one of their relatives in North Carolina.
After a stop in Roanoke Rapids, two of the suspects, Timothy Moran and Toni Draper, traveled to the secluded section of Edgewater and the victim was abruptly attacked and allegedly repeatedly stabbed by Moran.
The suspects left the victim next to the roadway and eventually went back to Emporia, removed the victim's car from their property and took it several miles away to a secluded area. Temple said further evidence was destroyed in the case.
The victim managed to crawl several hundred feet to a residence and get help.
Investigation led to the arrest of Moran and the others by members of the Greensville County Sheriff's Office.
The four all waived extradition to North Carolina Tuesday in court and were transported to Halifax County that evening.
Moran is in jail without the opportunity for bond and is charged with attempted first degree murder.
Lauren, Toni and Jerry Draper III
Lauren Draper, 22, has been jailed on $500,000 bond and faces charges of first degree attempted murder and conspiracy and Toni Draper faces the same charges as Lauren and has the same bond.
Jerry Draper III, who is Toni's husband and Lauren's brother, was charged with accessory after the fact to conspiracy to commit murder and was jailed on $500,000 bond.
Temple declined to discuss where on her body the victim was stabbed and whether a weapon was recovered. He did say the four have expressed remorse but declined to comment further.
comments
Quoting Jessica:
It's amazing that you can even attempt to portray any of these people as victims. It doesn't matter if they wielded the knife or just stood by and let it happen, but it's pretty obvious that there was planning and premeditation here. Maybe she should have thought about her children BEFORE she participated in this crime?
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