Son pleads not guilty in Hope Mills woman's murder

Robert Terry Ellison, 30, of 1822 Canady Pond Road, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Edwardyne "Dynee" Williams, whose body was found in the woods near their home on Dec. 11.

He was being held on a $500,000 secured bond Monday afternoon.

Williams disappeared the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Authorities found her SUV a week later on Chickenfoot Road with her cellphone and keys still inside and her purse hanging from a nearby tree.

An autopsy report, completed in February, found Williams had been strangled. Investigators have not given a motive for the killing.

They say Ellison had moved in with his mother about a month before her death. He wanted to help after her husband – his stepfather – died of cancer in December 2010, according to family members.

Ellison was already in jail on a weapons charge – possession of a firearm by a convicted felon – when he was charged with his mother's murder.

Williams's brother and sister-in-law attended the brief hearing Monday.

"It sort of answers all our suspicions. We were heading in this direction," Robert Kreel said, adding that he doesn't know what led to the killing.

"She always loved her son," said Mary Ann Kreel. "She would do anything she could to help him, and that's the way Dynee was. She loved children. She loved everyone."