Husband charged in Cherokee wife’s 2013 murder in federal court this week
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – A 46-year-old man charged in the 2013 murder of his wife appeared in federal court Monday, according to Department of Justice officials.
Ernest D. Pheasant, Sr., an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) in Swain County, is charged with one count of first-degree murder. Pheasant is in federal custody.
Arrest made in 2013 cold case killing in North Carolina
According to allegations in the indictment, on December 29, 2013, Pheasant killed his 26-year-old spouse, Marie Walkingstick Pheasant, and did so willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation.
Marie Pheasant’s body was found in a burning vehicle on Old Rock Crusher Road in the Big Cove community of the Qualla Boundary.
The man’s arraignment and detention hearings are scheduled for Wednesday, April 10, at 11:25 a.m., in Asheville.
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The charges arose from an investigation by the FBI in North Carolina, the Missing and Murdered Unit of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the Cherokee Indian Police Department, and the EBCI Office of the Tribal Prosecutor.
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