Police in Fayetteville, N.C., are investigating the death of a pregnant woman who was found dead in a Fayetteville hotel room earlier this month. A person of interest is being held in connection with Megan's death, and police are continuing to investigate a letter that was sent to a local newspaper in which the author claimed responsibility for Megan's death and used symbols associated with the author's so-called mentor, the Zodiac Killer.
On the morning of June 21, a maintenance supervisor at the Fairfield Inn called police after he smelled a strange odor coming from room 143. When officers from the Fayetteville Police Department arrived on the scene, motel employees told them that a "Do Not Disturb" sign had been hanging on the door since June 17. When officers entered the room they were struck by the strong odor of decomposition. They traced the source of the odor to a bathroom inside the room, where they found a young woman's body in the bathtub.
Investigators identified the victim as 23-year-old Megan Lynn Touma, an Army Specialist who had reported to Fort Bragg on Thursday, June 12. Megan had reportedly been staying at the motel while waiting to get into an on-post housing residence.
The state medical examiner's office has yet to comment on how Megan died; however, investigators have said they suspect she was dead for at least two days before her body was found. At the time of her death, Megan was seven months pregnant.
According to Fort Bragg spokesman Tom McCollum, Megan last reported for duty on Thursday, June 12. During a news conference last week, McCollum said that Megan had not been reported AWOL and that the Army was conducting an internal investigation to determine how her absence was overlooked.
The first lead in the case came on June 24, when The Fayetteville Observer received a letter from a person claiming responsibility for Megan's death.
"To whom it may concern," read the letter, which was dated June 17. "The following is to inform that I am responsible for the dead body that was found on Saturday, June 21 @ 1130 in room 143 at Fairfield INN by Marriott off Skibo RD. It was a master piece. I confess, that I have killed many times before in several states, but now I will start using my role-model's signature. There will be many more to come.
"Fayetteville law enforcement are very incompetent. I basically sat there and watch while investigators were on site." [sic throughout].
The letter, which appears to have been composed on a typewriter, also contained a symbol with a circle and cross, the same symbol used by the Zodiac Killer, an unknown serial killer who claimed responsibility for five murders in California in 1968 and 1969.
