Town Grieved, Stunned: Police Search For Killer Of Manteo Waitress

Published 3:24 pm Tuesday, February 6, 1990

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Police on Monday were still looking for the killer of 28-year old Elizabeth Stacey Stanton, a New Jersey native who resided on the Outer Banks for the past three years.

She was found by a co-worker, lying in a pool of blood in her Ananias Dare Street apartment in Manteo where she had been stabbed and cut, probably early Saturday morning.

The cause of death was listed as a loss of blood due to knife wounds to the throat

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Manteo police were joined in the investigation by officers of the Dare

County Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation.

A co-worker at the Duchess of Dare Restaurant where Miss Stanton worked found the body when she went to the apartment to find her after Miss Stanton did not show up for work at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Though no one has yet been arrested, police believe it was not a random

killing. There was no sign of forced entry.

The victim had lived in the area for three years and had worked in several places during that lime. She was reported to have dined at a Manteo pub about 9 p.m. Friday night, and a neighbor said he saw her return home about 1 a.m. Saturday morning,

According to Dare Sheriff Bert Austin, his officers are assisting the Manteo police and the State Bureau of Investigation with interviews and the general investigation, and a press briefing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday.

“Everything is moving along pretty well,” he said. “They’re pretty deeply involved.”

Boyd Midgett, a commissioner on the Manteo town board and an old friend of MISS Stanton and her family, said, “It certainly is sad. We’re going to go to New Jersey for the funeral.”

“Everybody liked Stacey,” he said “She had an extremely fine personality. ”

Midgett said he had been serving as the Manteo contact for the victim’s parents. Of her family, he said, “All of them are in shock, especially her younger brother.”

He said he had known her father for more than 30 years, an acquaintance which began before she was born. He said Miss Stanton’s father would come to Manteo at the end of this week after the funeral which will be held in Northfield, N.J. on Wednesday.

Nancy Austin, a next-door neighbor, said she heard nothing. “That’s what bothers us the most, that she could have called for help and we didn’t hear,” she said.

She said her two sons were shocked, unbelieving. Her father, Mrs. Austin

said, truly cared for Miss Stanton and would have been profoundly grieved if he was alive to know of the killing.

At a press conference Monday night, Capt. Sam Ball of the Manteo Police Department said the investigation was continuing and he could say nothing but that death was from bleeding as a result of multiple cuts of the neck.

Asked if he thought the police would solve the killing, he said, “I would like to say we will. I’m not sure.”

Questioned whether the people of Manteo have anything to worry about, he said, “Personally I don’t feel they do.”

He said the chief and other investigators had been at the same place all day.

To see the scans of the archived newspaper page where this article appeared, click here and here.

READ MORE ARTICLES RELATED TO THE STANTON CASE HERE.