RALEIGH -- Kathy Taft was brutally assaulted in a Raleigh house more than a month ago, but it was only in recent days that police focused on Jason Keith Williford as their prime suspect in the case.
Police Chief Harry S. Dolan on Saturday credited "gumshoe detective work" and crime scene lab analysis with leading officers to Williford, a 30-year-old jam band bassist.
Raleigh homicide detectives arrested Williford on Friday afternoon at a Jordan Lake campground. He is charged with rape and murder.
"He is the first and only suspect," Dolan told reporters at a Saturday news conference about the case.
Taft, 62, was from Greenville, and Williford played in a band that performed occasionally in the Pitt County college town. ButDolan said investigators think the sexual assault and homicide was a "random act of violence."
They also think Williford acted alone.
He lived about two-tenths of a mile from the 2710 Cartier Drive home where Taft, a state school board member, was staying in early March recovering from minor surgery to her neck. The home belongs to John M. Geil, a Raleigh lawyer with whom she had a relationship. Geil was out of town, Taft family members said, but Dina A. Holton, Taft's sister, was staying in the home with her.
Dolan would offer few details about what how Williford emerged as their suspect. He had an arrest record that included several burglary charges and a breaking and entering conviction in 2001. It is unclear whether investigators had fingerprints from Williford's previous arrests to match to any evidence collected at the crime scene.
In recent weeks, investigators had collected DNA samples from men who lived near Cartier Drive. But a man who lived in the same four-unit apartment building where Williford lived said investigators had not asked him for a DNA sample.
Dolan said, "DNA has been instrumental in this case," though he declined to discuss anything about the crime scene.
The chief added that Williford is not a suspect in a recent break-in and an attempted break-in in the neighborhood where Taft was assaulted.
Suspect's family silent
On Saturday, the day after Williford was booked into the Wake County jail without benefit of bail, his family declined to talk.
No one was home at the Wayland Drive apartment where he lived. Conch shells were lined up on the porch railing, and driftwood and bags of seashells decorated the wooden walkway to the front door.
Williford moved with a girlfriend into 2812 Wayland Ave., Apt. D, about six months ago, according to neighbors. The two occasionally tended to landscaping in front of the two-story building, which sits down from the road and overlooks a quiet swath of woods.
People walking through the neighborhood Saturday lingered at the top of the driveway leading to the property, which only hours earlier had been wrapped by yellow crime scene tape.
Williford's neighbors described him as quiet, a man who usually threw his hand up to wave after getting out of his car to walk to his residence.
Occasionally, Williford could be heard playing his bass guitar, neighbors said, but it became less frequent in the days after the Taft homicide.
Largely unknown
Few in the Raleigh music scene knew Williford very well.
At several bars in downtown Raleigh, sound men recalled seeing him but could not recall much about the tall, thin man and The Authority, the jam band he played with a couple of years ago.
A video of the band that had been posted on YouTube said Williford had the nickname "Lightning Bolt."
Raleigh musician Bob Grant said he responded to an online ad from Williford in October, when Williford was trying to put together a new band. Grant said they exchangede-mail until January, then lost touch.
Grant said Williford posted new recordings on the Web site reverbnation.com, an artist promotion site, on March 17, about two weeks after Taft's slaying. On March 18, Williford wrote to Grant again, he said.
"Sorry I never got back to you about playing together," Williford wrote. "I dropped out of the loop there for a while. ... I am still interested in starting a band so maybe we could get together."
In light of the allegations, Grant said Williford's comments about starting a new band are confusing.
"Is he a little disturbed, or was he just trying to cover his tracks and act like nothing happened?" Grant said. "I don't judge the guy. I don't judge anyone, and I definitely don't judge him. He's innocent until proven guilty. I hope he isn't found guilty. This guy was, like, ready to get together and create some music."
Williford has four of his original songs posted on reverbnation.com. The songs contain abstract but generally dark lyrics, with references to "the bottle."
The song "Twist of the Fate" pleads, "Don't hold me closer to my deepest fears, wasted in years." The song "Fell Back Down" says, "I felt the need to hang my head down in shame. ... Am I over things that waste me away? Can I see the higher path to take? ... Down is where you kept me, and down is where I left my soul."
Taft family's relief
Taft is survived by four grown children.
Two of them, Jonathan Taft and Paige Fuqua, told a New Bern TV station Saturday that they were relieved by the arrest and planned to be in a Wake County courtroom Monday when Williford is scheduled to make a first appearance before a judge.
"I just want to see his face," Taft told WCTI-TV. "To me, he's just pure evil."
Staff writers Sarah Ovaska and Thad Ogburn and news researcher Peggy Neal contributed to this report.
