Durham, N.C. — The daughter of a girl murdered almost three many years in the past this month spoke for the primary time with WRAL Information.
Kimberly Rigsbee, 22, from Durham, was taking her trash to a dumpster when she stopped alongside the facet of the highway and was shot. Her physique was discovered on Redwood Street close to Falls Lake in Durham County, slumped over the steering wheel of her pickup truck, with a number of gunshot wounds to her head, neck and chest.
Round 82% of homicides in North Carolina are solved, many with assist from the North Carolina Crime Lab, which analyzes bodily proof. However different murders are solved with suggestions, and that is what the household of Kimberly Rigsbee hopes will occur.
Brittany Rigsbee, now 29, recollects the story of how her younger mom was killed. Regardless that she was only a child on the time, she has heard her household inform the story for years.
“I’ve all the time needed to know,” Brittany Rigsbee mentioned. “It bothered me for a very long time as a result of I appeared a lot like her.”
She mentioned she had hassle wanting within the mirror as a result of she noticed herself as a mirrored image of her mom. Individuals would inform her that her eyes and chuckle are like her mom’s.
Brittany Rigsbee’s father, Donnie Rigsbee, had been killed in a bike accident 4 months earlier than her mom’s dying.
Now, Brittany Rigsbee is anticipating her first baby. The prospect of being a brand new mom has pushed her to need to know the reality about hers much more.
“The toughest [part] is now I am about to have my first baby, and she or he’s not right here,” she mentioned. “My baby won’t ever get to know her grandmother.”
Investigators consider that the crime was private, and proof from the scene exhibits that Kimberly Rigsbee probably knew her killer.
“I would like justice, however I need to know why, [if] they knew her nicely sufficient to know that once they took her, it was going to depart me with none dad and mom in any respect,” Brittany Rigsbee informed WRAL Information.
A retired detective with the Durham County Sheriff’s Workplace, Steve Rigsbee, labored on Kimberly Rigsbee’s case on the time. Whereas each homicide sufferer and investigator share the identical final identify, they don’t seem to be associated.
The detective recollects the random homicide of Kimberly Rigsbee was uncommon.
“We did not have many murders in any respect. It was form of uncommon … and the whole lot made me form of suspicious,” Steve Rigsbee mentioned.
Steve Rigsbee was referred to as to the scene rapidly as a result of investigators have been involved he was associated to Kimberly. He additionally has a relative named Kim.
Durham County Sheriff’s Investigator Tom Mellown told WRAL News in 2017 that her truck was nonetheless working when her physique was discovered.
“It could have been any individual she knew that she flagged down,” Mellown mentioned. “She could have stopped to speak to any individual. That’s unclear. Someone that was standing on the driver’s facet window began firing photographs at her.”
Steve Rigsbee mentioned Kimberly Rigsbee made a cellphone name instantly earlier than her dying. She stopped to name a person whom she was seeing on the time to say she believed she was being adopted.
“She mentioned the particular person was blinking their lights,” he mentioned. “So apparently she pulled over on the facet of the highway.”
There have been by no means any strong leads within the case, Steve Rigsbee mentioned, and just one witness got here ahead. The witness mentioned she noticed a white male with blonde hair and scruffy beard velocity by her after she heard gunfire.
“It is virtually prefer it was deliberate,” he mentioned.
The night time earlier than her dying, Kimberly Rigsbee had informed her brother she believed she was being watched.
Each the retired investigator and Brittany Rigsbee hope that speaking to WRAL Information will carry ahead new leads.
“Someone goes to have guilt of their coronary heart, or any individual actually is aware of one thing,” he mentioned. “They are going to have to come back ahead.”
The detective believes even in spite of everything these years the case might be solved. The Durham County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned this case remains to be open and lively, and they might welcome any leads that will assist them clear up it.
Officers with the sheriff’s workplace mentioned there are greater than 20 unsolved murder circumstances, relationship again to 1968. The newest was recorded in 2013.
If anybody has details about the crime, officers ask that they attain out to [email protected] or name the confidential hotline at (919) 560-7151.
