On July 21, 2022, the body of 20-year-old Raquiah Paulette King, a female from Hampton, Virginia, was discovered in a ditch on the side of a road in Glen Allen, Hanover County. The medical examiner later ruled her death a homicide, determining she had been fatally shot. At the time of her death, King was three months pregnant.
The investigation into her death led authorities to her boyfriend, 27-year-old Emmanuel Dewayne Coble, a U.S. Navy lieutenant.
The couple had been in a relationship, and King had reportedly moved to Virginia to live with him. Investigators learned that Coble did not want to be a father and had been pressuring King to have an abortion. The day before her body was found, Coble had driven King to an abortion clinic, but she ultimately changed her mind and decided not to go through with the procedure. Prosecutors argued that this decision frustrated Coble, leading to the fatal shooting. King's mother had received a sonogram image from her daughter, who expressed she was having problems with Coble regarding the pregnancy.
On August 11, 2022, Emmanuel Dewayne Coble was arrested in Hampton and charged with first-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. During the investigation, human blood was detected in the trunk of his car. During his trial, Coble claimed the shooting was accidental and occurred during a fight, admitting he then drove her body from Hampton Roads to Hanover County and left her in the woods.
In April 2025, a jury found Emmanuel Coble guilty of first-degree murder, the use of a firearm in the commission of a murder, the murder of a pregnant woman with intent to terminate the pregnancy, the premeditated killing of a fetus, and concealing a dead body. He faces a potential life sentence and was scheduled for sentencing in July. King's family described her as a 'ray of sunlight' who was fun, beautiful, courageous, and strong.
