So when security camera photographs of the suspects were circulated, not only locally but throughout the state and beyond, while police were searching for Carson's killers, you would think that someone in the state's criminal justice system -- their probation officers, for example --might recognize them.

That didn't happen. And the revelations that have followed have made only too clear why it didn't happen.

The state's probation system is underfunded and overburdened, poorly equipped and riddled with the kind of cracks through which Demario James Atwater and Laurence Alvin Lovette apparently slipped.

Atwater and Lovette, it is important to remember, haven't yet been tried, much less convicted. But regardless of the eventual outcome in their situation, the flaws the case has exposed in the probation system are real, and unacceptable.

"All of us can look at 'What if,'" said Robert Guy, director of the probation system. "At first glance, this is bad."

Judging by the errors and systemic failures that have been uncovered during just the past week, it's bad at first glance, second glance and whatever other glance you care to take.

Atwater was convicted of a weapons violation while he was on probation. That was a violation of his terms and should have put him behind bars --but the process of revoking his probation took months to even begin and had not been completed when Carson was killed on March 5.

Lovette was put on probation in January, but his probation officer never actually met with him. Why she was handling his case in the first place is a bit of a mystery; she was charged with driving while impaired last December, and under Department of Corrections policy should have been promptly put on administrative duty. But that didn't happen until March 7, two days after Carson was killed.

The point isn't to implicate anyone in Carson's death other than the person or persons who shot her. But it's clear that the flaws that have become apparent in Atwater and Lovette's situation are indications of fault lines throughout the system.

The Division of Community Corrections, which handles probation, has far too few officers handling far too many cases, and its officers are poorly paid for difficult and dangerous work.

The division is under-funded and operating with antiquated computers and communications systems that make it difficult for people in various parts of the state and various parts of the system to exchange information. You would think that in the 21st century, a computer system might exist that would alert probation officers when one of the offenders under their supervision is charged with another offense. Nope. Incredibly, in some cases it is left to the offenders themselves to inform their probation officers if they are charged with additional crimes.

Carson's death and its aftermath have triggered a wave of investigations -- by the Department of Correction, by Wake County, by the media -- into the workings of the probation system. "As we look at this, we're uncovering many things," said a spokesman for the corrections department.

If that leads to improvements and increased funding, it's to the good. We just wish it hadn't taken a tragedy of such heartbreaking magnitude to prompt the effort.