Car Jacked, Kidnapped, Tortured, Raped and Murdered

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Car-Jacked, Kidnapped, Tortured,

Raped and Murdered

Rocky Mount Man Remains In Jail On Murder, Attempted Murder Charges
ATM Transaction Leads Police to Suspect
ROCKY MOUNT, 12:23 p.m. EDT July 2, 2001 A Hampton mother abducted in
Greenville, N.C., Saturday morning and later found slain in woods about 40 miles away
was beaten to death, according to a North Carolina medical examiner.
Renee Curry, medical examiner in Rocky Mount, told the Greenville Daily Reflector late
Monday that Ginger Lynn Hayes may have lived as long as an hour after the attack.

Curry's preliminary autopsy showed that the 23-year-old wife of Langley Air Force Staff
Sgt. Jeremy Hayes and mother of 11-month-old Nicholas Hayes, died as a result of
multiple blows to the head.
Curry did not identify a weapon.
Nash County Sheriff's deputies arrested a man who appeared in a Food Lion videotape
after the carjacking. The security camera showed Andre Edwards withdrawing money
from an ATM on Hayes' account with Mrs. Hayes in the background, Lt. Dennis Lyons of
the Nash County Sheriff's Department said.
Edwards, 31, is well known among Rocky Mount police and the Nash County sheriff's
officers. He has been in and out of jails and prisons in North Carolina since he was a
juvenile, according to N.C. Department of Correction spokesman Keith Acree. The
crimes ranged from possession of stolen property and drunken driving, to robbery with
a sawed-off shotgun.
Despite the many convictions, Edwards served no more than three years for a single
conviction.
He served 15 months for a 1997 robbery with a sawed-off shotgun in neighboring
Edgecombe County. The sentence overlapped an 11-month sentence a Nash County
judge gave Edwards for accessory after a felony.
Nash County prosecutor Keith Werner said the accessory conviction stemmed from
Edwards driving a man to Washington, D.C., after he had kidnapped and raped a
woman.
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Edwards most recently served an eight-month sentence at the Tyrrell Prison Work Farm
in eastern North Carolina for possession of stolen property. Since his release in October,
Edwards was convicted of drunken driving and driving on a suspended license.
The court put him on supervised probation, Acree said.
"He was complying with the requirements for probation and last visited the probation
officer on June 12," Acree said.
Werner, who has prosecuted Edwards on the robbery, said he may seek the death
penalty against Edwards in the murder case.
"I have to wait for all the evidence, but it sounds like this case certainly qualifies" for
the death penalty, he said.
The Nash County charges include first-degree murder, attempted murder of Mrs. Hayes'
11-month-old son, robbery and abduction.
Edwards also faces a slew of charges in Greenville related to the carjacking.
Greenville is in Pitt County, about 40 miles from where the body was found.
The Nash County Sheriff's Department has scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference today
to answer questions about the slaying and abductions.
The Hayeses were returning from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to the couple's home in Hampton.
The couple had picked up Ginger's brother who planned to spend the rest of the
summer with his sister, her husband and new nephew.

They stopped for snacks at the CVS Pharmacy in Greenville about 10:15 a.m. Saturday.
When Hayes and his teen-age brother-in-law returned to the parking lot, his wife, son
and the rental car were gone.
About six hours later, a man walking with his dog through a field in Nash County found
Nicholas lying face down in a sweet potato field. The baby was silent and sunburned.
The man turned and saw Mrs. Hayes' body at the edge of some woods about 30 yards
away.
Ginger Hayes worked in the photo department at Walgreen's on West Mercury
Boulevard and North Armistead Avenue.
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A company spokesman described her as "a great employee, outgoing, friendly and well
liked. "She was very proud of that baby," Russell Pecchia, an executive assistant for the
drug store chain, said.
The Hayes' lived in a small two-bedroom house on Atwell Lane off East Little Back River
Road.
Jeremy Hayes returned with his son from North Carolina on Monday.
Erica Lambert spoke to her friend last week. They talked about birthday cakes and
party favors.
"She wanted to combine her son's first birthday with the birthdays of her stepson,
Austin, and the little boy who lives next door," 19-year-old Lambert said.
Hayes decided to have the cookout and birthday party on July 27 -- four days after
Nicholas turns a year old.
"This was to be a special event-- their son's first birthday. Ginger's face just glowed
whenever she talked about it."
WAVY-TV 10 contributed to this report.

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