Witness says suspects took Carson from home

HILLSBOROUGH -- A confidential witness told investigators that Eve Carson's alleged killers took her from her home March 5 after entering through an open door, according to search warrants made public Friday.

According to the witness, Demario Atwater told her he and Laurence Lovette Jr. then forced Carson into the back seat of her Toyota Highlander and drove her to an ATM.

Lovette shot Carson multiple times, and Atwater subsequently shot her with a different weapon, the witness told investigators.

Lovette is also charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Abhijit Mahato, a Duke University engineering student from Bengal, India.

In requesting the warrants, police investigating Carson's murder said they were looking for a shotgun and a .25-caliber pistol. There is no indication they found either weapon.

Based on the description of the crime outlined in the search warrants, Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said he plans to pursue additional indictments on charges other than first-degree murder. Those might include kidnapping and burglary.

Carson's autopsy report, released Monday, shows Carson held her hand in front of her head as a killer fired a shotgun that sent birdshot through her hand and into her temple.

The report confirmed that Carson was shot at least five times by two weapons.

-- Jesse DeConto, 932-8760; jesse.deconto@nando.com

Experts want HIV tests to become more routine

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. Peter Leone hopes the day will soon come when getting an HIV test at the doctor's office is as routine as getting your blood pressure checked.

"Twenty-five to 30 percent of the people living with HIV don't know they're infected," said Leone, a UNC associate professor and medical director of the HIV/STD Prevention and Care Branch of the state Division of Public Health. "In North Carolina, about 40 percent of our [HIV-infected] folks, when they first come in, have AIDS."

On Friday, National HIV Testing Day, health care workers urged people to know their HIV status.

By not having that information, people infected with the virus that causes AIDS can transmit it unknowingly to others. Not knowing also delays medical management of the virus.

That's why infectious disease trackers are encouraged by such clinics as Piedmont Health Services in Carrboro.

For the past year, the clinic has offered patients ages 13 to 64 free, rapid HIV testing. More than 70 percent of the patients have agreed to the test. After screening more than 4,000 people, six patients have tested positive for HIV.

In North Carolina, new HIV cases have risen to nearly 1,700 per year, up from the 1,500 reported five years ago.

-- Anne Blythe, 932-8741; anne.blythe@nando.com

Dead black bear off I-40 was hit by vehicle

CHAPEL HILL -- A black bear found dead Thursday morning off Interstate 40 was a 100-pound juvenile that had been struck by a vehicle.

Keith Grave and Charles Gardin of the state Department of Transportation responded to a call about 6:30 a.m. A morning commuter had reported a bear lying along exit 266, just outside the Chapel Hill town limits.

"I figured we'd get there and it'd just be a big, black dog," Gardin said. "But it wasn't. It was a bear."

Wildlife officials identified the bear as male and sent its teeth to a laboratory in Montana to determine its age, said Colleen Olfenbuttel, a state biologist.

This is the first black bear recorded to have been hit by an automobile in Orange County, she said.

The number of bears killed by automobiles usually increases at this time of year because young bears are leaving their mothers and moving into new, sometimes dangerous territory, Olfenbuttel said.

Last year, 155 bears were killed by automobiles in North Carolina, the second-highest number on record in the state. The drought forced many black bears out of their habitats and onto highways and into human-populated areas in search of water, Olfenbuttel said.

North Carolina has an estimated 11,000 black bears.

-- Sara Nydick Cheshire, 932-2003, scheshire@cfsnc.org