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Robbery Suspects Charged With Murder After Causing Fatal Crash

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LILLINGTON, N.C. — Five suspected bank robbers are accused of murdering a Lillington woman and her 17-year-old daughter by ramming their car as they tried to escape from police.

Authorities identified the victims as 43-year-old Wanda Lou-Finch Knox -- a secretary in the Campbell University business school -- and her daughter, 17-year-old Shannon Louellen Knox. They died Friday in the accident in Lillington. Another woman was injured but not hospitalized.

Harnett County Sheriff Larry Rollins said the highway patrol has charged four men with first-degree murder and issued a murder warrant for the fifth, who's still in the hospital.

Four of the men, aged 19 to 22, are from Fayetteville. The suspected driver is a 26-year-old Benson man.

Friends of the Knoxes and family visited the scene of the crash Saturday. Many left behind flowers, pictures, and other mementos.

WRAL spoke to the father and husband now left behind. He said he had known his wife since he was 13 years old, and they had been married 22 years.

Shannon was a senior at Harnett Central High, and she already had been accepted at Peace College, in Raleigh, for the fall of next year.

Shannon leaves behind a twin sister.

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