Around 7 a.m. on January 30, 2008, Raleigh, North Carolina police received multiple reports of a body on the side of Interstate 540.
The victim, an unidentified Black woman, “had multiple stab wounds to the chest,” said Capt. Cameron Lilyquist, of Wake County Sheriff’s Office.
“It appeared that somebody had put just a lot of anger into the offense,” he told Sins of the South, airing on Oxygen.
Evidence that the body had been dragged suggested that the victim had been killed somewhere else.
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Victim’s Identity Determined
An hour after law enforcement arrived, Darin Curtis approached a deputy at the perimeter of the crime scene. He said he’d filed a missing persons report on his 21-year-old wife, Latrese Curtis, adding that he found her Nissan Sentra about 150 yards away.
“He said that he looked inside the vehicle and [found] a large amount of blood in there,” said Lilyquist.
Who was Latrese Curtis?
Officials identified the victim as Latrese Curtis through Darin’s photos. Her father, Sherman Jones, described her as “a daddy’s girl and a go-getter.” She and Darin eloped in the spring of 2007.
Based on blood in the Nissan, “it was pretty obvious that the attack started inside Latrese’s vehicle,” said Lilyquist.
The car was towed to the station for processing, Donnie Harrison, now-retired from Wake County Sheriff’s Office, told Sins of the South.
Like her husband, Latrese was in college. She was studying accounting at University of North Carolina Central.
Darin had spoken to her around 10 p.m. the night before as she was leaving the library, according to investigators. He fell asleep around 11 p.m. and discovered his wife was missing in the morning. He tried calling her as he had to head to work. But on the way there, he saw her car, prompting him to return home and report her missing.
Before he returned to the crime scene, he checked their joint cell phone account. Darin found and called a number he didn’t recognize that was shown to have taken place late on January 29. A man answered who said he went to school with Latrese before ending the call.
Darin Curtis Questioned
When he was formally interviewed, Darin consented to being fingerprinted, DNA-swabbed, and photographed. Because Latrese had been repeatedly stabbed, detectives looked for cuts and scratches.
“They checked him for any injuries and defensive wounds,” said Jennifer Reimer, former prosecutor for Wake County DA’s Office. “They didn’t find any.”
Investigators obtained warrants to search the Curtis residence and vehicle. “The bulk of the forensic evidence came from Latrese’s car,” said Reimer. “The steering wheel was swabbed for DNA.”
Steven Randolph and Robert Reaves emerge in the case
As detectives tried to identify the man that Darin spoke with on the phone, there was a break in the case.
A State Trooper had located a vehicle around 1:30 a.m. on January 30, very close to where Latrese was found, according to Lilyquist.
Before the trooper could investigate further, he had to leave the scene to handle another call.
The car was found to belong to Robert Reaves, a pastor at a church in Durham. At the same time, detectives figured out that the man who’d spoken briefly with Darin was Steven Randolph, an NCCU student.
Randolph agreed to come in to be questioned, provided he could bring his “mentor and roommate” — Robert Reaves.
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Reaves and Randolph questioned
On February 1, Randolph told Lilyquist that he’d met Latrese in a class. She had said she was separated from her husband.
Their relationship became intimate. He’d last seen her on January 29. “He said the two of them had sexual intercourse at about 10 o’clock,” said Lilyquist.
After she left, Randolph went to friends’ home, where he played video games. Latrese later called him to discuss their relationship, according to detectives.
Randolph returned home at 1:30 a.m. The next morning, he got a call from an unknown man around 9 a.m. Randolph said he first heard of Latrese’s murder on the news.
In another interrogation room, Reaves claimed he had no idea why his car would have been on the I-540 at 1:30 a.m. He said he’d gone to church the night before and then home.
Reaves told officials that when he met Randolph at a car wash, the student was going through hard times, according to Reimer.
Reaves and his sister let him move into a spare room in their home for $300 a month. Then, the minister shocked detectives with an admission that came out of left field.
“Reaves said he approached Steven about starting an escort service. He said he asked Stephen to pull out his genitalia,” said Lilyquist, adding that the bishop claimed he needed measurements.
Randolph backed up what Reaves said. He added that “Reaves grabbed him,” said Lilyquest. After the incident Reaves no longer charged Randolph rent.
A warrant was obtained to collect DNA and fingerprints and to photograph Reaves’ body. He had fresh cuts, scrapes, and scratches, which he claimed he got when moving furniture, said Reimer.
Randolph was fingerprinted, swabbed for DNA, and photographed. He was found to have no cuts or injuries.
DNA samples of Darin, Randolph, and Reaves were sent to the crime lab for analysis and comparison to evidence from Latrese’s car.
Shocking Coroner’s Report
The autopsy report showed that Latrese had been stabbed more nearly 40 times, wral.com reported. At the same time, Reaves’ alibi was crumbling. No fellow churchgoers could verify that he was there, said Lilyquist.
Reaves was charged with murder. Investigators dug deep to find the link between Latrese and Reaves, as well as a motive for the brutal stabbing.
When DNA reports came back, Randolph and Darin were not a match and were cleared as suspects. Reaves’ results told a different story — he was a match. “The chances of it not being Robert Reaves was one and millions,” said Reimer.
The community responded in disbelief. “He was well-regarded and well respected in the church community,” said Thomasi McDonald, staff writer, Raleigh News & Observer. “It sounded like it would have been so out of character for him.”
Robert Reaves’ Unholy Past
Investigators learned that Reaves had a history of sexual misconduct in South Carolina and Brooklyn, New York, involving minor males.
Randolph was re-interviewed. He recalled getting a threatening call from an unknown male and having his tires slashed. The call was linked to Reaves. “It opened up a Jekyll and Hyde story to him,” said Reimer.
“Reaves had an obvious attraction to Steven Randolph,” said Lilyquist. But it wasn’t mutual.
“He felt Latrese was in the way and he wanted to get rid of this obstruction,” added Reimer.
George Kelly, Reaves’ attorney, poked a hole in the theory, according to Sins of the South.
“This case became … about lust,” he said, noting that Randolph had no interest in his client, so killing Latrese would have no benefit for him.
Kelly also tried to discredit DNA evidence. Because Latrese was in Reaves’ home, she could have picked up his DNA from a doorknob and transferred it to her steering wheel.
In September 2009, the trial began. Reaves’ own sister became a key witness. Her testimony showed he had no alibi.
Prosecutors laid out their theory, suggesting Reaves followed Latrese, violently stabbed her, and dragged her to the side of the highway.
Reaves chose not to testify on his own behalf and was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole, wcnc.com reported.
To learn more about the “Unholy Obsession” case, watch Sins of the South on Oxygen.
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