State Crime Lab confirms identity of dismembered body found in Goldsboro
"She does not deserve this. Nobody deserves to go like she did," said Diane Stewart, the mother of the victim.
Posted — Updated“She does not deserve this. Nobody deserves to go like she did," said Diane Stewart, the mother of the victim.
On Friday, the State Crime Laboratory confirmed that the body found was 38-year-old Stewart.
Her daughter, McKenzie Stewart, said it's unnerving to know someone in the area is capable of it.
“It was scary knowing that somebody around my hometown was like this," she said. "The last week has been hard not knowing.”
It’s been 10 days since police say a dismembered body was dumped randomly outside a home on Bright Street.
“Oh my God! How could somebody even do this," said Lisa Martin, Heather Stewart's sister.
“Whoever this is deserves answers [and] deserves justice," Martin said.
“I am angry. I am hurt. I am confused. If it is her, it’s going to be hard,” McKenzie Stewart said.
After surveillance cameras captured a suspicious car, officers arrested 29-year-old William Langston Junior for murder.
Stewart’s family doesn’t know him, but they believe more people are involved.
The 38-year-old put family first. She had jokes, a contagious laugh and a helping heart.
“She’s the type of woman to take her shirt off her back for someone. She took other women off the streets that nowhere to go and gave them somewhere to go. She’s helped people out of situations," McKenzie Stewart said. “Even if you did her dirty, she wouldn’t care.”
They have no idea why someone would want her dead.
“I don’t think we ever met anyone genuinely that we felt, ‘oh my gosh, she does not need to be around these people.’ Obviously we were not in her everyday life. We don’t know everybody she hung out with, we don’t know every little thing she did," Lisa Martin said.
It’s those little things police continue to investigate that will hopefully bring the closure they are so desperately searching for.
“I pray everyday that this is going to end [and] whoever it was will be caught and justice will be done," Diane Stewart said.
The family is hosting a candlelight vigil to bring awareness to the case, and to honor Stewart’s life.
The public is invited.
People will gather at 8 p.m. Sunday night, on Bright Street - outside the home where the body was found.
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