news-record.com

DURHAM — A forensic investigator with the Durham Police Department found a fingerprint on a piece of tape that had been wrapped around plastic bags that encased the body of four--year--old Jadon Higganbothan.

The fingerprint has been conclusively identified as a match to known fingerprints belonging to Peter Lucas Moses Jr., a search warrant affidavit states.

And now investigators are trying to determine if other fingerprints on the plastic bags or tape belong to his brother, J. Leonard Moses, his mother, Sheilda Evelyn Harris, and one of his common--in--law polygamist wives, LaRhonda Renee Smith.

Investigators believe that Pete Moses was the leader of a cult--like group called the Black Hebrews, and that he shot and killed Higganbothan in October 2011 in the home he shared with other adult members of the group and their children at 2109 Pear Tree Lane.

Investigators found Higganbothan's decomposed remains wrapped in numerous black plastic trash bags, secured periodically by bands of clear tape, in a shallow grave in the backyard of 2622 Ashe St., which was the home of Moses' mother, Sheilda Harris.

Investigators also found the body of Antoinette McKoy, 28, wrapped in a similar manner, in a separate shallow grave in the same backyard. It's believed that Higganbothan's mother, Vania Sisk, shot and killed McKoy in December 2010 after McKoy tried unsuccessfully to escape from the house at 2109 Pear Tree Lane.

Former District Attorney Tracey Cline told a judge during a hearing last July that Pete Moses shot the boy, who was the only child in the house that was not his biological child, because he thought the boy was gay.

The search warrant affidavit, filed Tuesday, states that there are other pieces of clear tape that were removed from the black plastic shrouds that contained developed ridge detail (fingerprints) that have not yet been compared by a latent examiner.

Last November members of the Durham Police Department Forensic Investigators Unit transported several black trash bags that contained the remains of Higganbothan to the Toronto Police Services in Ontario Canada for supplemental latent examination, the search warrant affidavit states.

"The process is currently on going, but partial latent evidence has been developed," the affidavit states. "Once the exam of all the black trash bags is completed the developed ridge details will be returned to the DPD FSU for latent examination."

As part of the investigation, it is necessary to obtain legible inked "major case" fingerprint impressions from P. Leonard Moses, Harris and Smith.