Police search slain carrier's e-mail

RALEIGH -- Raleigh police have looked at Jennifer Nielsen's and her husband's e-mail messages as they try to find the person who killed the pregnant newspaper carrier in June.

A Wake magistrate issued search warrants for the Nielsens' Yahoo and Hotmail e-mail accounts in September and earlier this month at the request of detectives. The warrants are public documents in the Wake Clerk of Court's Office.

The significance of what, if anything, police learned from the e-mail was not immediately clear. In an affidavit seeking the warrants, a police detective said officers wanted "to identify any an all persons communicating" with Nielsen.

Nielsen, 22, the mother of two small children, was eight months pregnant when she was stabbed to death early June 14 at the AmeriKing Food Mart and Exxon station on Lake Wheeler Road. A resident of Fuquay-Varina, she had been dropping off copies of USA Today that morning, before the business opened.

A homeless man found a bloodied pocketknife less than a quarter-mile from where she died, and it was turned over to police.

Police also released a composite sketch of a person they want to question.

Nielsen's family has been seeking the public's help in finding her killer, and the case has been publicized with posters, a billboard and coverage on the TV show "America's Most Wanted."

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Raleigh Police Department's tip line at (919) 227-6220.

Information about a $15,000 reward in the case and other details are available at her family's Web site: justice4jenna.weebly.com .