Linwood Earl Forte: The Goldsboro "Nightstalker" Murders
Linwood Earl Forte, born July 25, 1964, is an American serial killer and rapist convicted of a series of violent home invasions in Goldsboro, North Carolina. The crimes for which he was convicted occurred during 1990 and involved elderly residents attacked inside their own homes. Three people were murdered, another woman survived a near-fatal assault, and investigators later connected Forte to a separate 1994 murder. The Goldsboro cases were sometimes referred to as the "Nightstalker" crimes, although this nickname should not be confused with the better-known nickname associated with California serial killer Richard Ramirez.
The First Attack: Eliza Jones
The first crime in the series occurred during the early morning hours of May 26, 1990, in Goldsboro. Seventy-year-old Eliza Jones was attacked while she was in bed. She was strangled until she lost consciousness and was sexually assaulted. When Jones was discovered, she was bruised and scratched and was struggling to breathe because of oxygen deprivation. She survived the attack.
At the time, investigators had no identified suspect. Biological evidence recovered from Jones and her bed was preserved by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. That decision became critically important more than a decade later, because DNA testing eventually demonstrated that the biological material from the Jones attack was connected to evidence recovered from later crime scenes.
The Murder of Hattie Davis Bonner
Less than two months later, another elderly Goldsboro woman was attacked. On the morning of July 14, 1990, police found 79-year-old Hattie Davis Bonner dead in her bed. An autopsy established that Bonner had been manually strangled and suffocated with a pillow. Investigators also recovered biological evidence indicating that she had been sexually assaulted.
The similarities to the Jones attack were disturbing. Both women were elderly, both had been attacked in their homes and beds, strangulation was involved, and biological evidence from the two scenes was consistent with the same unidentified offender. Investigators preserved the physical evidence, but without a suspect against whom to compare it, the case remained unsolved.
The Murders of Alvin and Thelma Bowen
The violence escalated dramatically on October 6, 1990. The Goldsboro Fire Department responded to the home of 78-year-old Alvin Bowen and his 75-year-old wife, Thelma Bowen. Their house was burning, as was an automobile parked in an adjoining carport. Firefighters entered the residence and discovered both victims inside the bedroom area.
Autopsies determined that the Bowens had been murdered before the fire began. Alvin Bowen had been stabbed in the neck and chest. Thelma Bowen, who was blind, had been strangled, and forensic evidence indicated that she had also been sexually assaulted. Investigators discovered evidence of an accelerant extending from the bedroom through the house toward the burning automobile, where a gasoline container was found. The evidence indicated that the fire had been deliberately started after the killings, apparently in an effort to destroy or conceal evidence.
Despite the fire, investigators recovered usable biological material. DNA testing connected the Bowen crime scene to the earlier attacks on Eliza Jones and Hattie Bonner. Authorities now had compelling forensic evidence that the same person was responsible for all three episodes, but they still did not know the offender's identity.
Victims, Dates, and Locations
- Hattie Davis Bonner, 79 — Died July 14, 1990. She was found dead in her bed at her residence in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Her death was caused by strangulation and suffocation. Forte was later convicted of her first-degree murder.
- Alvin Bowen, 78 — Died October 6, 1990. He was killed inside the Bowen residence in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He suffered fatal stab wounds to his neck and chest. Forte was convicted of his first-degree murder.
- Thelma Bowen, 75 — Died October 6, 1990. She was killed inside the same Goldsboro residence as her husband, Alvin Bowen. She died from strangulation, and forensic evidence showed that she had been sexually assaulted. Forte was convicted of her first-degree murder.
- Dora Ann Thomas, 46 — Died June 30, 1994. She was found raped and strangled in her apartment in Goldsboro, North Carolina, approximately ten blocks from the location of the Bowen murders. Authorities later connected Forte to the case and prosecutors indicted him for her murder, but Thomas was not one of the three murder victims included in Forte's 2003 capital convictions. Her case therefore should be distinguished from his three judicially confirmed murders.
Surviving Victim
- Eliza Jones, 70 — Attacked May 26, 1990, inside her home in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Jones was strangled until she lost consciousness and sexually assaulted but survived. Evidence from her attack later became one of the DNA links tying Forte to the series.
A Cold Case Solved Through DNA
For years, the identity of the Goldsboro attacker remained unknown. Investigators recognized similarities among the crimes, including the victims' ages, attacks occurring inside private residences, the use of strangulation or suffocation against female victims, and biological evidence showing that the same offender had been present at multiple scenes. Nevertheless, conventional investigative methods failed to identify a suspect, and the cases became long-running cold cases.
The breakthrough resulted from DNA technology and an unrelated crime committed by Forte. During the 1990s, Forte was incarcerated on other charges, and his DNA profile was eventually entered into the state's database. Investigators later compared stored evidence from the Goldsboro cases against the growing database. In 2001, Forte's DNA was matched to biological evidence preserved from the Jones, Bonner, and Bowen crime scenes.
On April 30, 2001, investigators approached Forte while he was working at a poultry-processing plant. During subsequent questioning, Forte discussed entering residences in Goldsboro and later accompanied officers to locations connected with the old cases. He directed investigators to Jones's former address, the vacant lot where the Bowen house had once stood, and the former location of Bonner's residence. A fresh blood sample taken from Forte was analyzed, and investigators determined that his DNA matched the DNA recovered from the three 1990 crime scenes to near certainty.
The Dora Ann Thomas Investigation
Investigators continued examining unsolved crimes after Forte had been identified. Their attention eventually turned to the June 30, 1994 murder of Dora Ann Thomas. Thomas, 46, had been found raped and strangled in her Goldsboro apartment. The location was relatively close to the site of the Bowen murders, and investigators believed important similarities existed between her death and the earlier series.
Forte was subsequently indicted in connection with Thomas's murder. However, the murder convictions that ultimately placed him on North Carolina's death row were for Hattie Bonner, Alvin Bowen, and Thelma Bowen. For that reason, accounts describing Forte as a murderer of four people can be misleading unless they clearly identify Thomas as a separate case that was attributed to him by investigators rather than one of the three murders established by the 2003 jury verdicts.
Trial, Convictions, and Death Sentences
Forte's capital trial began in Wayne County Superior Court on September 8, 2003. He faced three counts of first-degree murder along with charges involving rape, burglary, assault, and arson arising from the 1990 attacks. The prosecution's case relied heavily on the preserved forensic evidence and DNA testing that linked Forte to each of the three crime scenes.
On September 30, 2003, the jury convicted Forte of three counts of first-degree murder. He was also found guilty of three counts of first-degree rape, three counts of first-degree burglary, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and first-degree arson. On October 8, 2003, the court entered three death sentences for the murders. The original judgment also included lengthy consecutive sentences for the noncapital offenses.
Forte appealed. In 2006, the Supreme Court of North Carolina upheld his murder convictions and death sentences, concluding that his capital trial was free from prejudicial error and that the death sentences were not disproportionate. The court did order resentencing on the noncapital offenses because of a separate sentencing issue, but the three murder convictions and death judgments remained intact.
Legacy of the Goldsboro Cases
The Forte investigation became an example of how biological evidence preserved from apparently unsolvable crimes could acquire enormous importance years later. In 1990, investigators possessed DNA-bearing evidence but had no identified person with whom to compare it. Once offender databases expanded and Forte's DNA became available, evidence that had remained in storage for approximately a decade provided the link investigators had been missing.
As of 2026, North Carolina's official death-row roster continues to list Linwood Earl Forte, with his death sentences dating from October 8, 2003. His confirmed crimes left three people dead and another seriously injured, while the separate murder of Dora Ann Thomas has also remained closely associated with his case. The murders of Hattie Bonner, Alvin Bowen, and Thelma Bowen, together with the surviving attack on Eliza Jones, remain the crimes definitively established against Forte through the evidence presented at his trial.
