Among the many factors that helped locate Edwards in Rocky Mount, that search warrant also led to the arrest of his girlfriend, Robin Gatling, 21.

Gatling was charged as an accessory after the fact of the murder of Lorenzo Tann Jr. She was also served an order for arrest for an alcohol violation. She was jailed on $251,000 bond.

“We have evidence that shows she was helping and assisting him in avoiding us,” Captain Andy Jackson said this morning.

Officers found a notebook with the address of a Rocky Mount motel in it, Jackson said. Edwards was arrested Wednesday as he pushed a baby in a stroller with a man he had befriended. The baby belonged to the man he had befriended, a man who was unaware Edwards was wanted for two murders, the murder of Tann in Roanoke Rapids and Brandon Tyrone Peterson in Weldon.

“I think that played a part in the culmination of stuff that was coming in at one time,” Jackson said of the importance of the search warrant. “I think everybody is relieved. Any time you have an incident of this magnitude it puts a stress on manpower and is physically and mentally demanding.”

Jackson also credited the cooperative effort of all law enforcement agencies in capturing Edwards without incident as he walked between the Motel 6 and Executive Inn on Highway 301 in Rocky Mount. “I thought all agencies worked well together, the Halifax County Sheriff's Office, the Weldon Police Department, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Rocky Mount Police Department and the Nash County Sheriff's Office. All played a big role, all shared intelligence with each other. It was the culmination of sharing information and keeping each other updated that helped speed up the process. He had been on Weldon's most wanted list for a while and was able to avoid the police for some time.”

Jackson said Roanoke Rapids police are still trying to establish a motive in Tann's death. “They knew each other. We do have evidence to link him to the crime.”

Jackson said police are puzzled by an entry on Gatling's Facebook page, which was posted several hours before the Peterson murder. The post, written in a combination of text message abbreviation and street lingo, makes a reference, “just anutha roach crushed.”

Jackson said police don't want to speculate, if that was foreshadowing of what was about to happen later that night in Weldon.

Jackson said police are also looking into whether Edwards may have been involved in a shooting on Duke Street in July in which John Mills II was wounded from shots fired outside as he prepared for bed. Gatling's house is in a diagonal direction from Mills' house. “We don't know if it's related,” he said. “We're looking at all aspects.”

The arrest of Gatling also solves a mysterious phone call rrspin.com received Monday night from a person calling from a private number proclaiming Edwards was innocent. rrspin.com referred the call to police and the number was traced to Gatling's cell phone after she called Jackson upon rrspin's referral.