It was May 5, 2008, a typical hot and muggy spring day in North Carolina when Dennis

Lovelace and his girlfriend Brenda Pierce were jet skiing on the Kataba River in

Gaston County. Dennis would later tell a jury he and Brenda had just driven under the

I-85 bridge that leads to Charlotte when they saw a blue sedan parked on a hill on an

embankment along the river. It appeared as though the vehicle was mere feet, if not inches,

from the water, strange. The couple doubled back and slowly approached the river bank.

Dennis testified, I started to approach the car and I seen the doors open and I couldn't

see anything because we were in the water. And so I took the jet ski up a little closer,

a little closer and a little closer and I stood up on the jet ski about 10 feet from the

bank and then I noticed that there was a body beside the car. He said the body was lying

there with feet facing the water with her hands up. Her skirt was a little bit up too

he said and she didn't look good. Quote, she was blue, purple looking and didn't look

good. So I turned around and hollered at Brenda and told Brenda I said, come here, there's

a body on the bank. Brenda did not believe him. She testified, he was like Brenda come

here and then he's like come here and he said there's a body over here and I didn't believe

him. But then whenever I trawled closer on my jet ski, I had to stand up to actually see

the body. Brenda said in court all she could see were weeds and the woman's face. Dennis

then told Brenda they needed to leave and call for help. Taking off in different directions

on their jet skis, Dennis found a construction site at a nearby housing development. There,

he used a construction worker cell phone to dial 911. Meanwhile, Brenda drove back to the

bait shop she and Dennis had been at earlier that day. She told the jury, when he told me

to go call 911, I sat there for just a brief second, still in shock. He was like you have

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