Megan Ward
2009-12-06 20:15:58
It was about 7:30 Saturday morning when the pounding at the door woke up Nick Catterton and his daughter Nicole.
“I knew that was the police knock,” Nick Catterton said Sunday. “I know that knock.”
For more than a month, detectives have been showing up at Catterton’s door at his small house on South York Street in Gastonia. They returned often asking questions, getting DNA samples and once retrieved some of Nicole’s jewelry, Catterton said.
The body of Catterton’s 17-year-old daughter Heather was found half-naked on a rural York County, S.C., road Oct. 29. About two weeks later, the body of Randi Dean Saldana, 30, was found burned on a road in Kings Mountain State Park, less than 10 miles from where Heather was found. The two young women knew each other and ran in the same circles, police and family said.
On Saturday morning the detectives told the father and daughter who they were arresting in Heather’s and Randi’s killing: a 47-year-old named Danny Robbie Hembree Jr., a man Nicole had been dating a few months.
“Me and Nicole was both just standing here,” Catterton said. “We were shocked…. I said, ‘What the hell?’"
Hembree, who lived at 2304 Oakstone Drive in Gastonia, had often stayed with Nicole in her room at Catterton’s house. Catterton said Hembree appeared thoughtful.
“He always asked if we needed anything,” Catterton said.
After Heather was killed, Hembree continued to come by the house.
“He would look me in the eyes. He was friends with me,” Catterton said. “You don’t know about people. You don’t know about anyone in the world.”
Hembree has a criminal history and had been in prison. He had convictions of breaking and entering and robbery dating from 1979.
Catterton knew he had been in prison but didn’t know all the details, he said. Knowing Hembree had been in prison didn’t give Catterton much worry.
“You can’t condemn people from doing prison time,” Catterton said. “People can change.”
Hembree continued to come by the home but Catterton said looking back, he can’t remember anything strange about Hembree’s behavior.
“Early on everybody was sort of a suspect,” Catterton said.
But a few weeks ago, as detectives asked more questions, Catterton began to wonder more and more about Hembree, he said.
The detectives visited the family often but shared little about their investigation, Catterton said. He still doesn’t know how his daughter was killed. Investigators with the York County Sheriff’s Office and Gastonia and Gaston County police departments, who have been working the cases, have not publically released how Heather and Randi were killed.
Catterton saw Hembree maybe Friday, the day before his arrest. Catterton’s not quite sure. His days, he said, have been running together.
“He never acted strangely or nothing,” Catterton said.
Catterton’s stepson told him Hembree was arrested by officers in Charlotte for robberies at hotels and a restaurant there Friday.
“The next day the detectives from York County showed up and said they were going to charge him with murder,” Catterton said.
Catterton said his daughter Nicole did not want to talk publically about the man she was dating who is now charged with killing her sister.
“Nicole’s been through some tough times here lately,” he said.
Nicole was also friends with Randi, he said. He said that’s why he thinks officers retrieved Nicole’s jewelry.
“Nicole had swapped rings with Randi before she got killed,” he said.
Catterton said Sunday his next plan was to call the detectives. He wants to know more.
“I want to know how she was murdered,” he said. “I just want them to tell me something.”
You can reach Megan Ward at 704-869-1829
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