WHEN her daughter was found murdered in the bath, Dee Sumpter was convinced someone she knew was behind the horrific killing.
There were no signs of forced entry into the family home, and suspicion first fell upon 20-year-old Shawna Hawk’s boyfriend Darryl Kirkpatrick.
While police quizzed Darryl, for weeks Dee’s mind tumbled with the names of everyone Shawna and the family knew.
The one person she never suspected was Shawna’s boss at restaurant chain Taco Bell – “sweet” Henry Wallace, who seemed so caring and considerate of her daughter.
He had been there for her at Shawna’s funeral, and, when they met in a shopping centre, hugged Dee tight to tell her how sorry he was for her loss.
But Wallace was hiding a dark secret. Behind his ‘big brother’ demeanour was a sick serial rapist and strangler who earned the nickname ‘The Taco Bell killer’ for his connections with the fast food outlet.
Wallace – America’s first known African-American serial killer – is on death row after admitting nine murders in North and South Carolina between May 1992 and March 1994. He confessed to another two in jail.
Now in a new book, Shawna’s mum talks about her revulsion at being comforted by Wallace.
In an exclusive chat she tells The Sun: “One day I was out shopping when Wallace walked up to me and hugged me, saying he had been praying for me and watched my interviews on TV.
“When everything unfolded I remember I just got such a wretched, cold, chilled feeling all over my body.
“That hug makes me feel nauseous. Even now I don’t have enough words to describe what I feel in regard to that moment when he had the nerve to hold me and offer words of condolences.
“He even had the gall to turn up at the viewing for Shawna, but he had seemed so warm towards her, so kind.”
Shawna, a bright college student, was found bludgeoned and strangled in the bath at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, in February 1993.
She was raped, battered and strangled by Wallace, her supervisor at a local Taco Bell branch, after they became friends and he visited to watch TV with her.
When everything unfolded I remember I just got such a wretched, cold, chilled feeling all over my body
Dee Sumpter
Twisted Wallace would later tell police that as Shawna gave him a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye, the “other side” of him came out.
“It was like a switch being turned on or a button being pushed or a door being opened,” he said.
When her body was found behind a shower curtain by boyfriend Darryl, police immediately suspected him of the murder.
But Dee, now 68, says: “I knew that Darryl loved Shawna immensely.”
She tells crime podcast host Ron Chepesiuk, the author of new book Bad Henry: The Murderous Rampage of ‘The Taco Bell Strangler’: “I remember meeting Darryl at Shawna’s grave.
“He was in a million pieces, and he would always tell me how hurt he was. When I would tell him I’m going to Shawna’s grave, he would be eager to meet me there.
“I would listen to him, watch him, and after a while, I removed him from my list of suspects. I knew he loved Shawna and would not kill her.”
Desperate plea
In desperation, a year after Shawna’s death with no concrete police leads, Dee wrote a letter begging the killer to confess.
Printed in the local press, it read: “Dear Killer: I am the mother of Shawna Denise Hawk. I am writing to you because you murdered my only daughter in our home on February 19, 1993, between the hours of 1pm and 5pm.
“It is so hard to believe that an entire year has gone by since that horrible Friday evening when Shawna’s dead body was discovered in the bathtub where you put her.
“ I do not hate you. What purpose would that serve? I do want you to come forth and confess to the horrible atrocity you have committed.”
A day later, on February 20, 1994, Wallace raped and strangled Vannessa Little Mack, 25, in her apartment. Her sister was his co-worker at Taco Bell.
Astonishingly Wallace, now 48, had already been quizzed by police over the disappearance of 18-year-old Tashanda Bethea, who he dumped in a lake in 1990, and the rape of another 16-year-old girl in his home town of Barnwell, South Carolina.
All his victims were black women he had met through jobs he held at Taco Bell and other fast-food places.
Wallace was a bold demon who had the front to attend my daughter’s funeral. His mind was demented and foul
Dee Sumpter
His arrest brought severe criticism of police as locals accused them of ignoring victims because they were young black women.
He is now on death row in North Carolina.
Dee says: “The police didn’t connect the dots and he was literally allowed to roam the city killing women.
“It was extreme racism. Had the victims been Caucasian women he would have long been captured.
“Wallace was a bold demon who had the front to attend my daughter’s funeral. His mind was demented and foul.
“In court he tried to mutter something about being sorry but the wretched damage had been done.”
Dee adds there are “no words” to describe how much she and Shawna’s three brothers miss her.
“I have good days and bad days. I’ve learned to live with her death, but will never get over it,” she says.
“Some days I can move through the pain freely but on other days it paralyses me.
“It’s been a hell of a life and all because one man wreaked havoc and horror and put women like my daughter in premature graves.”
BAD HENRY: The Murderous Rampage of ‘The Taco Bell Strangler’ is available on Amazon.
