Investigators Seek Motive, Suspect In Murder Of Wilson Teen

WILSON, N.C. — As investigators look for more clues in the field where her body was found, family and friends of Brittany Willis are trying to make sense of her death.

"Anyone that would do that to a person like her -- it makes me very mad," said Kathryn Overton, Willis' next-door neighbor and friend.

Overton's twin sister, Malory, planned to be Willis' roommate next year at Peace College.

"She didn't know a stranger. She was the most caring, fun girl I've ever met," Kathryn Overton said.

Willis graduated from Hunt High School in May. She was a soccer player and involved in many clubs. School psychologists and counselors have been talking with her friends, but no one knows why anyone would kill Willis.

"The sooner we get this person off the street, the better and safer all of us will feel," school counselor Nancy Boykin said. "You know she didn't deserve what happened to her."

Police continued to search the woods around the field where she was found and interview neighbors. They are waiting on lab results from Willis' SUV, which they recovered in front of an empty townhome, less than a mile from her body. They believe, at some point, the SUV was in the field.

"We don't know that she didn't go with someone that she knew or we don't know that this was something random," said Sgt. D.H. Garris, of the Wilson Police Department.

Overton and other friends are collecting money for a reward, hoping it will bring an arrest.

"We really just want to know what happened," Overton said.

Police want to talk with anyone who may have seen Willis or her SUV on Ward Boulevard late Monday afternoon. The reward for information leading to an arrest is up to $20,000.

A visitation is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at Joyner's Funeral Home in Wilson. Willis' funeral is Friday at 11 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Wilson.