Pregnant Jennifer "Jenna" Nielson murder Jun. 14, 2007

[CSAFD]

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Questions haunt family

RALEIGH - Jenna Nielsen's family will lower her and her unborn son into the sandy soil of her native Utah today. They'll do their bravest best to celebrate Nielsen's life, taken as she was on the verge of delivering another.
More than 2,000 miles away, Raleigh police manned a hot line they hoped would ring with a tip that could lead them to the young mother's killer. The line's been ringing, but so far, there have been no major breakthroughs, police said.

A stranger attacked Nielsen, 22, in the early morning darkness of June 14 as she dropped off a stack of fresh USA Today newspapers in a machine outside a Raleigh market. A dome light in her Honda Civic shined bright in the dark parking lot when a News & Observer carrier made a delivery at 5 a.m. Police found her body, swollen with a son due July 8, abandoned near the drive-through window of an attached Subway sandwich shop.

Nielsen's friends and family will travel from around the country to bury her and unborn son Ethen in a vast Salt Lake City cemetery. The family will treat it as a funeral for two.

As Nielsen's family braced for a final goodbye, they couldn't shake images of what they fear were her final moments. Nielsen's grandmother Diane Frank rattles questions police say they can't answer for them.

"Was she molested? Was she hurt in any way? Did she suffer? Did she go quick? Did they hurt the baby or did he just die because Jenna died? These are things we need to know," Frank said from her home in Utah, where she's helping tend Jenna's two small boys. "My only prayer is that she went quick and didn't suffer and wasn't terrified."

Nielsen didn't scare easily.

As a teen, her canary yellow Volkswagen bug broke down in the middle of a busy exit ramp. She howled with laughter and signaled to her high school buddy Sarah Watts to start pushing. The girls shoved the dead car more than a quarter of a mile to a gas station.

"She just laughed," recalled Watts, a high school friend. "Nothing stopped her. Nothing stalled her. She just kept going. That's something you're born with."

Culture, not cartoons

Nielsen knew what she wanted and chased it with a singular intensity, said Frank, who helped care for her as a girl. She had little tolerance for distractions.

As a young girl, Nielsen loved ballet but dropped out of classes.

She told her grandmother: "I love it, but they just want to play, and I came to learn."

While girls her age splashed in pools all summer, Nielsen traveled the world with her grandparents, who conducted seminars on alternative health therapy. She digested that culture in charming ways, Frank said. A 7-year-old Nielsen requested her grandmother make fettuccine with shrimp scampi and fresh mushrooms for dinner. Instead of flipping on cartoons, Nielsen was glued to Victor Borge, laughing at the Danish pianist's comic performances.

Nielsen capitalized on her love of the arts in high school. She attended a performing arts charter school outside St. George, Utah, where she rehearsed ballet, tap and modern dance. She considered a career in dancing. Nielsen toyed with the idea of modeling, too.

Her 5-foot-1-inch frame prevented her from doing either professionally, Frank said.

Her life mission

Nielsen's future came to her one lazy summer afternoon after her junior year in high school. She and her friend Watts strolled a local mall and dropped by a Foot Locker shoe store to chat with a friend of Watts. That's when she first spotted Tim Nielsen. He, too, stopped in to visit a friend. The two barely spoke, but Watts knew she was witnessing a connection not easily severed.

For days, Nielsen forced Watts to patrol the mall with her, hoping for another glance at Tim Nielsen. She kicked herself for not getting his number that first day.
"From the start, she was head over heels," Watts said. They were both small and a bit goofy, Watts said. Tim Nielsen had long since finished school and was working in telemarketing.

Within a year, the two married. Nielsen eventually dropped out of school and settled into married life.

"When she knew, she knew. She had her mind made up," Watts said.

Within a year or so, Nielsen's life mission became clear. That's when Schyler made their family three.

Nielsen doted on her son, reading and singing at all hours of the day and night while Tim Nielsen found work at a factory where Nielsen's father worked.

It was that work that led them to North Carolina. The company, Boons Edam Tomsed Inc., a revolving-door manufacturer, moved its operations to Lillington. An entire cluster of the Nielsen family -- her father, husband and brother -- headed east.

Nielsen trailed last August, shortly after the couple had their second son, Kaiden. The family lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Fuquay-Varina. A few months later, Nielsen became pregnant with their third, the boy Nielsen carried to her death this month.

Before dawn

Anxious to help their growing family's budget, Nielsen looked for work that bookended her husband's workday. The USA Today delivery route let her sneak out in the first minutes of a new day, the boys fast asleep under her husband's watch.

Nielsen loved exploring the city at night, dropping fresh papers in machines dotting Wake County's landscape. She was learning her way around, she told her grandmother.

AmeriKing Food Mart and Exxon, on the corner of Lake Wheeler Road and Centennial Boulevard, was an early stop on her route. Her family doubts Nielsen had but $10 in quarters with her, collected from machines a few stops before.

When Nielsen didn't return home by dawn, Tim Nielsen worried she'd gone into labor during her route. If only.

[CSAFD]

Knife found near slain pregnant woman

A knife was found near where an 8-month-pregnant newspaper carrier was killed earlier this month, police said today.
Jennifer Kathleen Nielsen, 22, was attacked early June 14 as she dropped off a stack of USA Today newspapers in a machine outside a Raleigh market.

A News & Observer carrier called authorities when he saw her car in the parking lot with the lights on. Police found her body about 5 a.m. behind the Ameriking Food Mart and Exxon Station on Lake Wheeler Road in front of the state Farmers Market.

A preliminary autopsy showed that she had been stabbed in the left side of neck.

Raleigh police said today that a knife was one of several items recovered from the scene. A spokesman declined to provide more details about the type of knife, its location or when it was found.

Anyone with knowledge of this crime is asked to call (919) 227-6220. A reward will be available for information that assists the investigation.

[CSAFD]

22-year-old Jennifer Kathleen Nielsen, known as Jenna by close friends, wanted a new life. She had recently moved to the Raleigh, North Carolina area from Salt Lake City for a fresh start with her family. Jenna, her husband, Tim, and their two young sons settled in Fuquay-Varina, and soon Jenna's father, stepmother and two brothers joined.

They lived there less than a year, and soon, Jenna became pregnant with her and Tim's third boy. Needing a little extra cash, Jenna picked up a job delivering newspapers for USA Today. It was a job that had her driving by herself to various businesses in the early hours of the morning.


A 911 call reported something strange at the AmeriKing Food Mart.

Two Murders: A Woman And Her Unborn Baby

Around 5:00 a.m. the morning of June 14, when Jenna would have been on her route, a 911 call came in to the Raleigh Police Department. The caller was another newspaper carrier, and he reported seeing a Honda Civic left seemingly abandoned at the AmeriKing Food Mart on Lake Wheeler Road. He said the interior light was on, the door was open, and newspapers were scattered on the ground. The scene was strange enough for the man to call police.

Officers went to the scene and didn't find anything unusual, until they walked to the back of the store. There, they found Jenna's body. While they won't say how she was killed, police are calling her death a homicide.


The Search For Clues Leads To A Composite Sketch
Police say because of the time of day, they have little to go on. But they do know at least one man they'd like to find. They've released a composite sketch of a man they say was at the crime scene in the pre-dawn hours the morning Jenna was killed. Police say he is in his late teens or early 20s. He is about 5'3", about 120 lbs. The man has black hair that was pulled back into a long ponytail. He was wearing a dark-colored sleeveless shirt and baggy blue jeans shorts. Police say he is a person of interest who may know something that could help the investigation.

[CSAFD]

North Carolina Police Search for Killer of Pregnant Mom Who Died Delivering Newspapers

RALEIGH, N.C. — Police are looking for clues into who murdered Jennifer Kathleen Nielsen, a 22-year-old mother of two who was found stabbed to death last Thursday.

Nielsen, who moved to North Carolina from Utah last year, was killed while working as a newspaper carrier for USA Today and delivering a local weekly newspaper in Raleigh. USA Today took out a full-page ad in hopes of finding information about who killed her.

A Raleigh police officer found Nielsen's body around 5 a.m. on June 14 behind an AmeriKing Food Mart and Exxon station near 1709 Lake Wheeler Road. She was likely killed between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. when the store was closed, investigators said. Nielsen was eight months pregnant and expected to deliver her third child, Ethan, July 8.

She apparently was stabbed in the neck, according to a preliminary report from the state medical examiner's office. Police are asking for help in finding her killer.

"We're still looking for any information from anyone who may have seen anything," Raleigh Police Capt. Chris Bertram told USA Today.

The ad in Monday’s editions include a police sketch of the man wanted for questioning in connection with Nielsen’s murder. He is described as a 5’3", 120-pound male 17 to 20 years of age, with long black hair in a ponytail. He was seen wearing a black sleeveless t-shirt and baggy blue jean shorts. He is thin with a slender face, no apparent facial hair and light skin.

The sketch was made after an unidentified witness told police he had seen the man in the area, USA Today reported. The newspaper also said investigators are reviewing videotapes from surveillance cameras at the scene. Bertram said he didn't know whether the attack was captured on the tapes.

The area where Nielsen’s body was found is near woods where multiple homeless camps have been set up, but Bertram told USA Today: "We are not speculating that the person who did this might have been homeless."

Nielsen was buried Saturday in Salt Lake City, near where she lived before she and her husband, Tim, moved to Fuquay-Varina last August. The couple already had two young children before her death.

"She was the joy of our life," said Diane Frank, Nielsen's grandmother, USA Today reported. "She played the piano beautifully. She danced. She sang. She could make music out of anything."

Nielsen worked as a paper carrier for USA Today to earn extra money.

USA TODAY contributed $5,000 to a fund established by Nielsen's family in her name.

The newspaper's parent company, Gannett, has pledged to contribute $10,000, said Heidi Zimmerman, a USA TODAY spokeswoman.

Anyone with any information is asked to call the Raleigh Police Department at (919) 227-6220.

Unlike more than half the states in the nation, North Carolina does not have a homicide law for the death of an unborn child. That means if Nielsen's killer is arrested and brought to trial, prosecutors can't charge the suspect with the death of her baby.

"I don't think there's anything we can do," said Colon Willoughby, Wake County's district attorney. "I try to carry out the law as it is written. The policies are decided by the legislature."

A 1989 state Supreme Court ruling also limits prosecutors in such cases. That ruling says that causing harm to the mother that results in the death of her unborn child does not amount to murder. The court said it's only murder if the child survives the attack then later dies of injuries.

Nielsen's friends find these legal limits hard to understand.

"If the baby had been inside of her for one or two months, then I think there may be questions about it as a developing fetus," said Paul Grynick, a family friend from Utah. "But at eight months, it's a baby living inside of its mother. It's alive."

While prosecutors can't treat her death as a double homicide, they may be able to seek the death penalty. North Carolina's capital punishment statute includes a section about aggravating circumstances, which could allow prosecutors to argue the killing of a young mother and unborn baby was especially heinous or cruel.

"There's certainly an argument to be made there," said Joe Kennedy, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Willoughby said it's too soon to say if his office will seek the death penalty in the Nielsen case. Her killer is expected to be charged with first-degree murder.

"That's the highest classification we have," Willoughby said.

Prosecutors can push for enhanced penalties against attackers if the mother survives but miscarries. Under North Carolina law, a charge can be elevated to the next-higher level of offense when a crime against a pregnant woman causes a miscarriage or stillbirth of her unborn child.

Nationally, 31 states have fetal homicide statutes. One high-profile use of such a statute was the Scott Peterson case in California. In 2005, a judge there sentenced Peterson to death for the murders of his wife Laci and her unborn son.

The federal Unborn Victims Violence Act of 2004 also recognizes an unborn child at any stage of development as a legal victim. However, the law is limited to federal statutes, including acts of terrorism, crimes committed on f

A fund has been set up for Nielsen’s family. Contributions can be sent to:

Nielsen Family Fund

First Flight Credit Union

1156 North Main Street Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526

Attention: Kati 919-557-5311

[CSAFD]

Jennifer Kathleen "Jenna" Nielsen, 22, was found dead on the morning of June 14, 2007 outside a Raleigh gas station-convenience store.

A year later, Nielsen slaying remains unsolved

Raleigh, N.C. — Police investigators have interviewed more than 700 people and received more than 1,000 tips related to the death Jenna Nielsen, who was stabbed to death a year ago behind a Raleigh convenience store.

But they are still seeking leads, police said Friday, and believe the case will be solved.

"(We) remain confident that the case can and will be cleared by the arrest of the responsible suspect or suspects,” spokesman Jim Sughrue said.

Saturday marks a year since the death of the 22-year-old pregnant mother of two who was delivering USA Today newspapers to supplement her growing family's income. She was a month away from giving birth to her and husband's third son, Ethen.

Police say she was making a delivery at the AmeriKing Food Mart on Lake Wheeler Road early morning June 14, 2007, when someone attacked her and stabbed her in the neck.

The attack was random, investigators said, and although they have named no suspects, have sought information about a person of interest seen near the convenience store in the pre-dawn hours of that day.

The mystery led to national news media – Fox News, CNN and America’s Most Wanted among them – latching on to the case in the days and weeks following Nielsen's death.

USA Today also published several full-page advertisements about the case, and a local advertising company posted a billboard in downtown Raleigh in an effort to generate leads.

Sughrue said Friday police still are seeking the public's help.

"As the anniversary of the murder approaches, the department is again asking people to contact detectives if they have not previously shared any information – no matter how important or unimportant it may seem to them," he said.

The person of interest is a short, slightly built man in his late teens or early 20s with black hair pulled back into a long ponytail.

He was wearing a dark-colored sleeveless shirt and baggy blue jeans shorts. His ethnicity is not known, and detectives are urging people to avoid speculation based upon the physical description, police said.

A reward up to $15,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect. Anyone with information can call the Raleigh Police Department at 919-227-6220.

http://justice4jenna.weebly.com/

[CSAFD]

Jennifer Kathleen Nielsen: Pregnant Woman Slain Behind Food Mart
From NC WANTED Staff

Posted: Jun 29, 2007
Updated: Apr. 3, 2009


WAKE COUNTY — WAKE COUNTY: Autopsy confirms that Jenna died of a single stab wound to her neck. A one-inch-wide wound went 3.7 inches into the left side of Jenna Nielsen's neck, hitting her carotid artery and her internal jugular vein, the autopsy found.

Medical examiners also gathered evidence for a rape kit, but the report contained no information that Nielsen, 22, was raped or sexually assaulted.

It did say, however, that her pants and underwear had been pulled down. Because Nielsen was partially clothed, sources indicate it is possible that her killer attempted to rape her and that when she struggled, she was fatally wounded.

Nielsen also had abrasions to both elbows, right knee and left shin that, according to the medical examiner, could have been caused by a fall or from being dragged. The report also indicates a single hair found on her right hand but does not specify whether it belonged to Nielsen or her attacker.

Nielsen was pregnant with her third child, a boy to be named Ethen, at the time of her death.

According to the autopsy, the fetus was approximately 38 to 40 weeks and healthy, weighing about 6.35 pounds and was about 19.9 inches long.

Raleigh police found Nielsen's body at approximately 4:30 a.m. June 14 behind the AmeriKing Food Mart at 1709 Lake Wheeler Road. The store was on Nielsen's newspaper delivery route for USA Today.

Investigators recovered a bloody knife near the crime scene later that day but police have not said whether it was the murder weapon.

Nielsen's family has set up a Web site, justice4jenna.org,, in an effort to keep the case alive and is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the case.

Police have no suspects in the case, but have released a composite photo of a person of interest wanted for questioning.

He is described as being in his late teens or early 20s, standing about 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing about 120 pounds. He had black hair pulled into a ponytail and wore a dark-colored sleeveless shirt and baggy denim shorts.

http://www.ncwanted.com/ncwanted_home/story/1545503/

[SavannahStar]

Pregnant mom stabbed on her newspaper route

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Story Highlights
Jenna Nielsen was eight months pregnant when she was stabbed to death

Nielsen, 22, was delivering papers at a convenience store at 3:30 a.m.

Police have described a suspect; family says they have DNA evidence

Know something? Call (919) 227-6220. A reward is offered

By Rupa Mikkilineni
Nancy Grace Producer

(CNN) -- Jenna Nielsen was 22 years old, 8½ months pregnant and looking forward to bringing her third child into the world when her life came to a violent and abrupt end on June 14, 2007.

She was working her new job on a newspaper delivery route she'd taken to help her young family make ends meet. That's when police say she was stabbed to death in front of a convenience store in Raleigh, North Carolina -- a crime that has police and family members still looking for answers.

Marking the two-year anniversary of his wife's death, with no arrests and no named suspects announced by police, Tim Nielsen can only shake his head when he ponders who may have targeted his wife.

"I believe she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time," said Nielsen, who has returned to his native Utah, where his family helps him raise his two children -- Schyler, 5, and Kaiden, 2. "My wife had no enemies."

Police say that two years ago last Sunday, Nielsen arrived at the AmeriKing Food Mart about 3:30 a.m. to deliver papers.

She'd parked and just finished loading the newspaper vending machine when she was attacked on the way back to her car.

Nielsen was stabbed in the neck. Two of her car doors were left open and her purse and car keys were still inside, police said.

Authorities will not publicly speculate on a motive. But Jenna's family believes the attack may have been an attempted sexual assault and that Jenna fought back.

Investigators say they have received thousands of tips and interviewed hundreds of people, but they still don't have a clear picture of a suspect.

Laura Hourigan, spokeswoman for the Raleigh Police Department, said investigators remain confident the case can be solved.

"This case is actively being investigated still," she said. "But we have a few missing pieces and hope for the public's help."

Early in their investigation, the police released a composite sketch obtained from two witnesses who saw the attacker fleeing the scene of the crime.

But they have since backed away from the image, saying it was misleading people. They describe Nielsen's attacker as a short, slightly built man in his late teens or early 20s with black hair pulled back into a long ponytail.

He was wearing a dark sleeveless shirt and baggy blue jeans shorts, according to witnesses.

Shortly after Nielsen's death, a knife was found by a homeless man not far from the scene of the crime. Police won't comment on whether the knife might be the murder weapon. There has been other evidence collected.

"They found DNA, but I can't say more than that," Tim Nielsen said.

Other members of Nielsen's family quote police as saying they have DNA evidence from the killer, but have not been able to match it with anyone they've interviewed over the years.

The family has stayed active in keeping Nielsen's case in the public eye.

They've held "Vigils Against Violence" the last Sunday of every month and maintain justice4jenna.org, a Web site devoted to her memory and to the effort to track down her killer.

"It's hard to believe that it has been two years since someone selfishly stole you from our family," reads the site's home page. "There isn't a day that goes by that you and Ethen [the name planned for her unborn child] are not in our thoughts.

"Schyler and Kaiden are growing so fast. They look like you, act like you and laugh like you -- for that we are able to see you each and every day through them. Schyler asks about you often and helps Kaiden remember Mommy."

The family also have been advocates for the so-called Unborn Victims of Violence Act, state legislation that would create a fetal homicide law in North Carolina.

Currently, state law does not consider a killing a double homicide when an expectant mother is slain.

Jenna Nielsen's father, Kevin Blaine, takes every chance he can to plead for help from the public

"Help find the people that did this to her," he said. "The person who did this is still out there."

The family is offering a $15,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for Nielsen's murder. Anyone with any information on this crime is asked to call the Raleigh Police Department at (919) 227-6220.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/17/grace.coldcase.nielsen/index.html

[packy]

From CSAFD's link http://www.ncwanted.com/ncwanted_home/story/1545503/

it say sketch no longer valid yet if you click on the sketch it still shows.

[nomadpatti]

OMG!
Such a tragedy!

This is for you Jenna............

http://www.cmt.com/videos/alan-jackson/355885/sissys-song.jhtml

May God Bless your babies!

J:1187603408.CR.Mothe

Justice for you and your family!!!!!!!!!

[CSAFD]

ironically Jessica "Jessie" Davis and Nicole Ganguzza was also murdered on Jun. 14, 2007, Jenna's and Nicole's are still unsolved.