except the car, which he left at a local shopping center. Wallace returned to the same apartment complex on March 8, 1994, knowing that Berness Woods would be at work so he could murder his girlfriend, Brandi June Henderson, an 18-year-old high school student, homemaker, and mother of Woods’ child. Wallace raped Henderson while she held her baby and then strangled her. He also strangled her son, who survived. The police increased their patrols in east Charlotte after two bodies of young black women were found at The Lake Apartments complex. Even so, Wallace sneaked into rob and strangled Debra Ann Slaughter, 35, who had been his girlfriend's co-worker. He raped, strangled, and stabbed her 38 times in the stomach and chest before taking money from the apartment for drugs. Slaughter's body was found on March 12, 1994. Wallace was arrested on March 13, 1994. For 12 hours, he confessed to the murders of 10 Charlotte women. He then confessed to an 11th murder he committed before moving to Charlotte. Wallace described in detail the women's appearances, as well as how he raped, robbed, and killed the women. Aftermath and criticism Charlotte's police chief rejoiced at Wallace's arrest, reassuring the community that the women of east Charlotte were safe. However, many in the area's black community criticized the police's conduct during the investigation, accusing them of neglecting the murders of black women. One woman stated that the police did not care because they viewed the young female murder victims as "fast girls who hang out a lot". As Shawna Denise Hawk's mother, Dee Sumpter, said: "The victims weren't prominent people with social-economic status. They weren't special. And they were black." Charlotte's police chief, Dennis Nowicki, had said he was unaware of a killer until early March 1994, when three young black women were murdered within four days. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department apologized to Charlotte citizens for not spotting a link between the murders sooner. However, they said the murder cases varied enough to throw them off Wallace's trail. Until Wallace's murder pace picked up in the early weeks of March 1994, the deaths were sporadic and not entirely similar. It was only during the week of March 9, 1994, that Charlotte police warned the people in east Charlotte that there was a serial killer on the loose. Trial Over the next two years, Wallace's case was delayed over the choice