Candace Elaine Pickens, 24, was found dead on May 12, 2016, in Jones Park in Asheville, North Carolina. A jogger discovered her body near an elementary school. The autopsy showed she had been shot twice in the head; one wound was fatal. She was in the first trimester of pregnancy at the time.

Her 3-year-old son, Zachaeus Waters, was found alive but critically injured with a gunshot wound to the face; he was hospitalized and later made a full recovery. Authorities charged Candace’s boyfriend, 24-year-old Nathaniel Elijah Dixon, with first-degree murder, first-degree murder of an unborn child, first-degree attempted murder, and child abuse while inflicting serious injury.

In July 2019 a Buncombe County jury convicted Dixon of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and malicious maiming; he was acquitted of the unborn-child murder and child-abuse counts and received life without parole plus additional terms. An appeal raising Batson and other issues was heard in the Court of Appeals on September 20, 2022; the opinion was filed December 5, 2023, and the conviction was upheld.

Did anyone in Asheville or Jones Park notice anything unusual around May 12, 2016 that might shed more light on Candace’s last day?