Update on UNC coed murder case.

Westcoastmon
Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:12:13 +0000

Laurence Lovette, 17, was also involved in the robbery and murder of a Duke graduate student from India, Abhijit Mahato. He was shot in his apartment in Durham, North Carolina on January 18th.

Eve was murdered on March 5th in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Lovette is also suspected in several robberies of Duke staff and students in and around the Duke University campus which was referred to in local papers as a “crime wave.” Additional articles state that Lovette was using Mahato’s cell phone which was taken on January 18th. It’s too bad the Durham police were unable to find him in the two and a half months preceding Eve’s murder.

Duke students are well aware of crime in the area - a student was recently attacked with a box cutter and robbed a few weeks ago while walking to his dorm. Chapel Hill has traditionally been seen as safer for college students than Durham. Local newspapers inferred that the murder was the result of “spillover” crime from Durham.

My opinion is that Durham police needs to reprioritize and make the prevention of violent crime its number one focus.