Authorities: Locklear choked, dumped in South River

After choking Danielle Locklear to death and stuffing a sock in her mouth, Je'Michael Malloy and a friend tied her body to cinder blocks and tossed her into the South River at the Cumberland-Sampson line, authorities said Tuesday night.

Malloy, 17, of 7946 N.C. Highway 210 South in Autryville, was Locklear's ex-boyfriend and is now charged with second-degree murder – the killing was not premeditated, authorities said.

"Investigators say Locklear and Malloy became involved in an argument," Hope Mills Police Chief Joel Acciardo said at a news conference Tuesday night. "The conversation turned violent."

His friend, Dominic Lock, 18, of the 1300 block of Cade Hill Avenue in Fayetteville, is charged with conspiracy for helping transport the body.

Both were arrested Tuesday, and Lock, authorities say, could face additional charges.

Malloy and Lock were each placed in the Cumberland County Jail under a $100,000 bond and were scheduled to have their first court appearances Wednesday afternoon.

"All I can say is that this is a tragic event for the family of the victim, for the family of the suspect," Acciardo said. "Everybody involved is young. Everybody involved had their whole life ahead of them."

The arrests end nearly a month of searching and speculation after Locklear, 15, disappeared on March 11 after leaving her grandparents' home on Trencholm Lane in the Fox Meadow/Brook Ridge subdivisions to visit a friend.

That friend turned out to be Malloy, officials said.

Locklear was killed, and her body dumped, that same night, authorities said. Her grandfather contacted police the following day.

Investigators still do not have a positive identification that the body found in the river last Wednesday is Locklear's, but Malloy confessed that the body was hers, authorities said.

The body was discovered by an off-duty Cumberland County Sheriff's Office detective near the South Gray Street bridge near Autryville, along the Cumberland-Sampson line.

Locklear's physical description, along with the clothes she was last seen wearing, helped identify her, authorities said.

Malloy confessed to the detective who found her body, authorities said.