LUMBERTON, N.C. (WNCN) — A registered sex offender — who was also out of prison on parole — has been charged with murder in the case of a missing medical worker from Fayetteville, officials say.
Michael Brayboy, 42, was charged in the death of Jessica Lawrence, 42, of St. Pauls, the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday.
“This senseless cowardly murder of an innocent woman was gruesome in nature and no one deserved this treatment,” Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said in the news release.
Lawrence, who was a mother, was reported missing on Oct. 12 after she was leaving her job at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville, the news release said.
However, officials later said she was seen at her home at 175 Coy Road in St. Pauls, Sept. 26.
Deputies and the North Carolina Search and Rescue Team conducted several searches throughout the county.
On Oct. 14, Lawrence’s vehicle was located in the area of N.C. 710 North near Red Springs.
Nine days later a body was found in woods along Tom M. Road in Rowland. The body was later confirmed as Lawrence.
Court records show Brayboy is a convicted sex offender and spent more than 20 years in prison for rape.
“There is a flaw somewhere in the system that allowed this man to walk amongst the innocent and something must be done,” Wilkins said in a news release.
Brayboy is charged with first-degree murder, burning of personal property, concealing a death, altering/destroying evidence, larceny of a vehicle, financial card theft, obtaining property by false pretense, felony larceny and felony conspiracy.
Brayboy was initially arrested in October while driving the 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee that belonged to Lawrence.
Brayboy was charged then with failing to report a change of address as a sex offender.
Linda Locklear lived in the same neighborhood as Lawrence and became friends with her.
“It was just like we knew each other for years,” Locklear said of their friendship. “I don’t have a vehicle so she said ‘girl you don’t have to worry about going to town now’ because she said ‘I’ll take you whenever you want to.’”
Locklear said Lawrence was Brayboy’s girlfriend and that the two had plans to go to Pembroke the night she went missing.
“That night is the last night that I’ve seen that vehicle or him or her,” said Locklear.
When Lawrence didn’t meet her landlord to pay rent, Locklear said they went inside her house on Oct. 12 to check on her.
Brayboy is being held in the Robeson County Jail without bond.
