Log in to WRAL.com with one click using your favorite social network:
OR
Log in using your WRAL.com account:



Wrong email/password combination.

Forgot password?

Register with WRAL.com using your favorite social network:
OR
Register for a WRAL.com account using our web form.

Login Options

6:13 a.m. • 2-11-12

Weather Forecast for Raleigh

  • Today: Mostly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 50° F
  • Sun: Clear.
    • Hi: 41° F
  • Mon: Mostly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 50° F

Other Locations

> 7 Day Forecast

Doppler Image

Marketplace Links

Social Links

Main Menu

Woman Found Dead at Bottom of Stairwell


e-mail print friendly
 Fayetteville Body Found
One woman was dead and her partner arrested after a domestic incident in Fayetteville early Sunday morning.

Authorities were called to the Cambridge Arms Apartments off McPherson Church Road about 4:30 a.m., where they found Michele Vasquez, 27, dead at the bottom of a stairwell.

Detectives have charged Jocquelette N. Rawlings, 20, with first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

Neighbor Darren Holland said he heard Vasquez arguing with another woman. He ran up the stairs and then saw Vasquez being pushed off the balcony, he said. He attempted to save her, but failed.

“I grabbed her with my left hand and she slipped through me and fell backwards,” Holland said.

Investigators said Rawlings lived with Vasquez. Friends told WRAL the two had a romantic relationship that was also rocky.

Before the altercation, friends said Vasquez was out celebrating. Sunday would have been her 27th birthday.

Darrell McLaughlin was with Vasquez at local bars the night before. The two met working at the Smithfield Packing Plant in Tarheel.

“She was an outgoing person and really loving,” McLaughlin said. “We've both been through so much. I kind of related to hear and looked up to her.”

Holland said he often heard the two women fighting and remembered what he told them once.

“I said, ‘One day, one of y'all are going to kill each other,’” Holland said. “And then it happened on her birthday.”
  • Reporter:
  • Photographer: Bobbie Eng
  • Web Editor: Dana Franks

RELATED TOPICS: Fayetteville

e-mail print friendly

35 Comments


WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

View Comments VIEW ALL 35 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments
DV is no laughing matter and sees no race sex or sexual preference. I know what it's like to loose a loved one and have people judge them by their lifestyle. It hurts a lot. May his grace, peace and love be with the family.

Thanks for your comments MikeVasquez. Its good to have a person in the forum that knows the individual, its helps provide some insight into her life. I'm sorry for your loss and everyone involved will definitely be in my prayers! I hope your memories of her provide you with some comfort. Its ashamed that people who are abused end up in abusive relationships. Michele is most assuredly in a better place.

All ready been through it Crystal Amber so settle down already.

mikevasquez - I am so sorry for your loss and will be praying for you and your family. No, it does not matter that your sister was in a homosexual relationship, who are we to judge? She did not deserved to be murdered.

The point of law is what should be argued not the morality of a relationship.

View Comments VIEW ALL 35 COMMENTS
Report It

Multimedia

Click Here