On November 17, 1991, 7-year-old African American male Darien Hayes was found murdered in his home in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His death was part of a horrific triple homicide that also claimed the lives of his mother, 27-year-old African American woman Helisa Stewart Hayes, and his 8-year-old brother, African American male Phillip Hayes. The family lived in the Sunshine Mobile Home Park, where the crime scene revealed a deeply disturbing and violent attack.
Investigators determined
that 7-year-old African American male Darien Hayes had been strangled with the cord from a curling iron. His 8-year-old brother, Phillip, had been stabbed 40 times with a pair of scissors and also had an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. Their mother, Helisa, had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled. The brutality of the murders shocked the Fayetteville community and prompted an intensive investigation.
The primary suspect in the case was Earl Richmond Jr., a former Army drill sergeant and a family friend. Richmond had previously dated one of Helisa Hayes' sisters and was close to the family—so much so that he served as a pallbearer at the victims' funerals. DNA evidence found at the scene linked Richmond to the crime. He was arrested and charged with the murders of 7-year-old African American male Darien Hayes, his brother, and their mother.
Further investigation revealed that Richmond had also committed a separate murder earlier that year in New Jersey. In April 1991, he killed Army Specialist Lisa Ann Nadeau, who was beaten with a hammer, stabbed, hog-tied, and strangled. Richmond was later convicted of that murder as well and sentenced to life in prison for it.
For the Fayetteville murders, Richmond was convicted and sentenced to death. He remained on North Carolina's death row from 1995 until his execution by lethal injection on May 6, 2005. Family members of the victims, including the father of 7-year-old African American male Darien Hayes, were present at the execution. Richmond never expressed remorse for his crimes, and his actions left a lasting scar on the families and communities affected. His case remains one of the most chilling examples of betrayal and violence in North Carolina's criminal history.
