Victim's mom: Rocky Mount woman's body discarded 'like trash'

Sheriff James Knight said late Friday that the remains were those of Yolanda Renee Lancaster, 37, who has been missing since February 2009.

Hunters found the body Monday afternoon off a path in some woods off Battleboro-Leggett Road near the Battleboro community and called authorities.

Over the past five years, eight other women with similar backgrounds have turned up dead – many along Seven Bridges Road in the same vicinity where Lancaster’s body was found.

Lancaster’s mother, Juray Tucker, has spent nearly two years searching for answers in her daughter's disappearance. Getting the call Friday night that the remains belonged to her daughter was her "worst nightmare," Tucker said.

"Just because somebody tossed her away like trash; that is not who she was," Tucker said.

Authorities have charged Antwan Maurice Pittman in one of the nine deaths but have identified him as a suspect or person of interest in many of the cases. He was expected to go to trial in May, but the case has been continued indefinitely.

The investigation attracted the attention of Gov. Bev Perdue last April when she ordered the North Carolina National Guard to help search for Lancaster and another woman still missing – Joyce Renee Durham.

Tucker said she hopes the attention to these cases doesn't go away.

"I want people to be aware of it. I don't ever want them to ever forget this situation," she said.