Facts of the Crime:
Robert Ira Peede drove his motorcycle from Hillsboro, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida on March 30, 1983 with the intent of getting his estranged wife, Darla Peede, to return to North Carolina with him. The full extent of his plan was to use Ms. Peede as a decoy to lure his former wife, Geraldine, and her current boyfriend, Calvin Wagner, to a motel where he was going to kill them. He sold his motorcycle and flew to Miami, Florida. At approximately 5:15 p.m., Peede called Darla and requested that she come pick him up at the airport.
Darla agreed but prior to her departure she left strict instructions with her daughter to call the police if she was not back by midnight and to give them the license plate number of her car. Darla also gave her daughter both Geraldine’s and the Hillsboro Police Department’s phone numbers. Darla feared that she would be forced to return to North Carolina and would be killed with the others. She purposefully only took her purse with her when she left her home.
According to Peede’s statements, Darla picked him up at the airport. He then directed her to drive north on Interstate 95. The two mistakenly got on to the turnpike heading toward Orlando. As some point the song “Swinging” came on the radio. Due to Peede’s belief that Darla and Geraldine had placed an ad for sexual partners in the national magazine “Swinger,” Peede superficially cut Darla in the side with his knife. On the way to Orlando, the two picked up a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker drove the car while the two had intercourse in the back seat. Darla remained in the back seat and the hitchhiker was dropped off in Orlando. Peede drove toward Daytona Beach on I-4.
The two began discussing Peede’s idea about the advertisement in the magazine “Swingers.” About five or six miles outside of Orlando, Peede stopped the car on the shoulder of the road, jumped into the back seat, and stabbed Darla in the neck. This wound resulted in Darla bleeding to death within five to fifteen minutes. Peede continued to drive to North Carolina. He discarded Darla’s body in a wooded area in Camden, Georgia. Peede threw his knife out of the car window at some point during the drive. Peede still had intentions of carrying out the murders of Geraldine and Calvin; his shotgun was loaded and placed by the door when he was arrested. Peede was arrested at his home in Hillsboro, North Carolina. Darla’s car was parked outside of his residence. The car’s interior was heavily bloodstained. Peede wrote out a confession stating that he killed Darla by stabbing her in the throat. Peede also asked for the death penalty and for this sentence to be carried out as soon as possible.
Peede was sentenced to death in Orange County on March 5, 1984.
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