A man has been charged with kidnapping and killing a U.S. Postal Service worker while she was delivering mail in North Carolina last week, according to the authorities.
William Craig Durham, 56, was arrested on Friday afternoon after police responded to an emergency call from a home address in Hays, N.C., and found Brandi Reynolds, 35, dead at the scene, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement on Saturday.
Mr. Durham was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping on Friday, according to court records.
Ms. Reynolds had been working on her route at the time of her death, said Michael Martel, an inspector for the United States Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement wing of the postal service, in an interview on Wednesday.
In a warrant filed to support the charges, the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office said that Mr. Durham had taken Ms. Reynolds “from one place to another” without her consent with the purpose of terrorizing and seriously injuring her.
The authorities did not disclose a motive for the killing. The case remains under investigation, Mr. Martel said.
In February, Mr. Durham had been charged with taking a credit card belonging to Ms. Reynolds and attempting to steal $440, according to a warrant. The case was dismissed weeks later.
Mr. Durham appears to have a criminal history dating back more than three decades, including serving time for kidnapping and, at a different time, assaulting a woman, according to state prison records.
Mr. Durham was denied bond and is currently being held at the Wilkes County Jail, according to court records and the county’s inmate information service.
A probable cause hearing on the case has been delayed after it was originally scheduled for next week, according to records filed in Wilkes County District Court. A defense attorney appointed for Mr. Durham did not return requests for comment on Wednesday.
An obituary for Ms. Reynolds stated she had two daughters who “were her whole world.” Her husband, Brent Reynolds, died last year in a road accident, according to WXII, a local NBC affiliate.
Mr. Martel said murders of postal workers, who become part of the communities they visit on a daily basis, are “exceedingly rare.”
