Slain insurance auditor laid to rest

The funeral service for Sallie Rohrbach, of Angier, was held at the Thomas Funeral Home, 401 N. Ennis St. in Fuquay-Varina. Rohrbach was buried at Raleigh Memorial Park, along Glenwood Avenue.

“She could light up a room. She had just a wonderful sense of humor, just a vibrant person,” said Joseph Ingram, friend of Rohrbach.

"She was a very caring, giving, generous person,” brother-in-law Mark Rohrbach said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have said her death is connected to her duties as an auditor and that evidence in her car and Howell's vehicle connected him to the homicide.

“Sallie died protecting the people of North Carolina. She died doing her job as a Department of Insurance employee,” said Chrissy Pearson, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Insurance.

Top state insurance officials were at the funeral, including the commissioner. The department spokesperson said they are looking into their existing policies to see if or anything needs to be changed in wake of Rohrbach's death.

“We will honor her by making sure that whatever we do from here on out gives our employees the confidence and peace of mind to continue their work and the work that Sallie was doing,” Pearson said.

Sources inside the police department told CBS affiliate WBTV in Charlotte, however, that she died from blunt force trauma and that the killing took place inside Howell's office at the Dilworth Agency.

Howell made an initial appearance in court Thursday and asked a judge for a public defender, a request that was denied by a judge who said he had enough money to pay for his own defense.