Cold case went unsolved for over a decade. Now, former NC soldier charged with murder

A cold case went unsolved for more than a decade, and now a former North Carolina soldier is charged with murder.

Joshua Aaron Richardson, who was stationed at the Fort Bragg military base at the time of the 2010 killing, was recently tracked down in Texas, officials said.

The arrest comes almost 13 years after Terrance Plummer Jr. was found stabbed to death in an apartment in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Though the case went cold, police said improvements in technology helped them find a suspect.

Richardson, 41, was charged with first-degree murder on Tuesday, Feb. 7. The Fayetteville Police Department didn’t list attorney information for him in a news release.

Plummer was found dead along Rhew Street, roughly 6 miles southeast of Fort Bragg. The discovery on May 31, 2010, sparked a yearslong search for clues.

“His body was discovered in a vacant apartment on Memorial Day when officers responded to a call of a possible breaking and entering,” police wrote in a 2011 Facebook post.

Plummer, 22, was found with at least 31 stab wounds, not including more shallow cuts to his body, according to an autopsy report obtained by The Fayetteville Observer.

“In 12 years of law enforcement, this is one of the more brutal murders I’ve seen,” detective Jeff Locklear told the newspaper in 2011.

At the time, officers asked for help from the public, saying Plummer was last seen alive in a Volkswagen Bug.

“Witness(s) state Plummer was having a verbal disagreement with the driver,” officials wrote, adding the person behind the wheel “looked like a soldier.”

Now, years later, police say forensic evidence from the crime scene led them to Richardson. He had been an active-duty Fort Bragg soldier in 2010 and now calls Houston, Texas, home.

Richardson was taken to jail in Harris County, Texas, and is waiting to be extradited, according to police in North Carolina.

Officers ask anyone with information about the case to call them at 910-751-1046 or Crimestoppers at 910-483-8477. People also can visit fay-nccrimestoppers.org or use a smartphone application called P3 Tips.

Fort Bragg, which is home to the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, is roughly 55 miles southwest of Raleigh.

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