Man charged in NC murder of 2 sisters

WINTON, N.C. - More than two years after two elderly Emporia sisters were stabbed to death and their bodies dumped on a dirt trail outside Murfreesboro, N.C., a Franklin man has been charged with murder.

William Curtis Futrell, 34, is accused of killing Dorothy Hobbs, 74, and Nellie Bradley, 71, in August 2006.

Sheriff Juan Vaughan said Futrell was arrested at 10 a.m. Thursday in Franklin. He was taken to the Hertford County Jail, where he remains tonight on two counts of first-degree murder.

"We've put some long hours into this case, and finally, today, an arrest was made," Vaughan said at a news conference at the Hertford County Courthouse. He said DNA evidence collected at the scene and analyzed by the state crime lab in Raleigh was used to make the connection, but would not elaborate further.

A passerby driving down a dirt road on Aug. 4, 2006, found the sisters, stripped naked and their throats cut. The pair were last seen the day before in Boykins, Va. Hobbs' car was later found about a mile outside Boykins.

Murfreesboro is a small Hertford County city of 2,000 in North Carolina's Inner Banks region, about 60 miles southwest of Norfolk. It became the focus of a massive investigation involving seven law-enforcement agencies, including state and federal authorities. Vaughan credited help from other departments with helping break the case.

Vaughan said that Futrell has not been very cooperative, and that other arrests may be possible.