Autopsy: Vance County woman was stabbed before death in fire

Chapel Hill, N.C. — An autopsy report released Thursday shows Geneva Brown Parham had been stabbed eight times, but died of smoke inhalation during a fire at her Vance County home.

Parham's burned body was found in her house, at 2567 Allison Cooper Drive, on Sept. 11, 2008. Her estranged husband, Robert Sterling Parham Jr., 36, of 671 Club Pond Road, is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson in her death. He is being held on $300,000 bond.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded that Geneva Parham most likely died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the fire although, the autopsy says, her stab wounds "would have been sufficient to cause death had the carbon monoxide not been fatal first."

Vance County deputies allege that the Parhams had been fighting before the fire.

The couple's three children are now in the custody of Geneva Parham's parents.