Concord man charged again in 1996 homicide – WSOC TV

CORNELIUS, N.C. — A Concord man was led to jail in handcuffs and charged with killing his girlfriend in 1996.

Shaw University student Lacoy McQueen's disappearance and slaying were highly publicized. The investigation eventually went cold.
 
Christopher Lawing was charged but the charges were dismissed; now, authorities said new evidence led to his arrest again.
 
Lawing appeared before a judge Thursday afternoon, accused of the murder 18 years ago.
 
Sadie Torrence said she doesn't believe her cousin, Lawing, is responsible for the death of McQueen.

"I don't think he could have done it," Torrence said. "In a way, a lot of the family had forgotten about it because we thought it was all cleared up."
 
Torrence remembers when her cousin, who was in his early 20s, was first arrested in 1997.
 
The arrest came a year after the homicide when a construction crew found McQueen's remains while digging along U.S. Highway 1 near Kittrell.
 
Lawing was a student at North Carolina State in Raleigh at the time and his girlfriend, McQueen, attended Shaw University but was last seen with Lawing not far from the bell tower at N.C. State.
 
Odell Edmond didn't find out about his cousin's most recent arrest until Channel 9 told him Thursday.

He grew up with Lawing and wants to hear what new evidence police have in the case.

"We all want the truth because we're all good Christian people," Edmond said. "We're all going to pull for him and pull for the family and hope his dad and mom are going to be alright."

Homicide detectives went to the grand jury after additional testing was performed using methods not available nearly two decades ago.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:

WSOC