Warrant: NCCU Slaying Suspect Was 'Stalking' Victim's Fiancé

DURHAM, N.C. — A Greensboro woman accused of killing a North Carolina Central University graduate student earlier this month had been "stalking" the victim's fiancé, according to a search warrant released Tuesday.

The fiancé, Jermeir Stroud, a Greensboro police officer, told investigators Shannon Elizabeth Crawley, 27, had been stalking him for a while. She had seen Denita Monique Smith, Stroud said, and knew who she was.

Smith, 25, was shot inside a stairwell of Campus Crossing Apartments on Jan. 4 and then fell down several steps to the sidewalk, police said.

A maintenance worker told police he saw a woman matching Crawley's description driving away from the apartment complex in a burgundy Ford Explorer less than two hours before a maintenance worker found Smith's body.

According to the search warrant, he saw the woman walking away from where Smith's body was found. She was crying and distraught when she got into the Explorer, the witness told police.

"The witness stopped the vehicle and asked the subject if everything was okay, and she just continued to cry," the affidavit for the warrant stated. "He also asked if she had heard a gunshot, and she shook her head 'yes.'"

The affidavit continues, saying the witness was going to call police and that the driver attempted to leave the scene.

"He stopped her again telling her to wait, but she proceeded to leave anyway."

Police arrested Crawley, a dispatcher for Guilford Metro 911 in Greensboro, on Jan. 9, but have said very little about a possible motive for the shooting or the connection between Crawley, Stroud and Smith.

Investigators searched Crawley's house and a burgundy Ford Explorer belonging to her days before her arrest. The warrant shows they seized a Guilford Metro 911 uniform, a Sprint phone bill, a computer, photographs, e-mail printouts, two gunshot residue kits and a floppy disk.

Crawley is being held at North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women the women's prison in Raleigh without bond for safekeeping. She is scheduled to appear in court again next month.