Prosecutor: NCCU Student Stabbed 40 Times

Durham, N.C. — A North Carolina Central Student University student found dead along Interstate 540 in Raleigh earlier this year was stabbed 40 times, prosecutors said in court this week.

Robert Lee Adams Reaves, the suspect in Latrese Matral Curtis' death, also went to his church ministry after the slaying to wash the blood off his clothes and body, prosecutors said.

"Mr. Reaves may have bone back to this location after this homicide to clean up and possibly destroy evidence that he may have been wearing during this incident," investigators said in a Feb. 2 search warrant for Cedar International Fellowship in Durham.

They seized two large metal trash dumpsters from the business complex, according to the warrants.

Curtis, 21, an administration and management major at NCCU, was last seen leaving a class on Jan. 29, and, according to her husband in a 911 call, called him about 10 p.m. that night to tell him she was on her way home.

According to the search warrants, Curtis had been visiting Reaves' roommate, Steven L. Randolph, at his home on Birchcrest Court. But Reaves was not home at the time.

At 1:36 a.m. on Jan. 30, a North Carolina state trooper found Reaves' 2004 Chrysler Pacifica parked on the side of I-540 near the location motorists spotted Curtis' body at about 7:30 a.m. There was no one in the vehicle, but according to the warrant, the trooper spotted a woman's sweater inside.

Another warrant showed that Curtis' cellular phone was also used to call Randolph in the hours before her body was found.

But the warrants do not offer a motive for the crime.

Reaves was a pastor for more than 20 years and faced criminal sexual charges in South Carolina and New York.

In Durham, Reaves pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of obtaining property by false pretenses in September 2005, according to court records. He was ordered to pay $500 in restitution and given community service and 12-months probation.