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Timeline of events

Compiled by Record staff

Published: July 22, 2009

March 3, 2004 — Betsy Dickens is found, beaten to death, north of Brookford off U.S. 70, SE.

March 25, 2004 — Beverly Linebarger is found severely beaten off South Center Street. She survives the attack.

April 9, 2004 — Cynthia Lail is found severely beaten in southwest Hickory. She's alive.

April 2004 — A task force is created to find the person or people responsible for the attacks and murders. The task force includes the Hickory Police Department, Catawba County Sheriff's Office, State Bureau of Investigating and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Newton Police Department also assisted.

August 2004 — Lail dies of her injuries.

September 2004 — N.C. Gov. Mike Easley announces a $12,500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the assaults and murders. Hickory Police Chief Floyd Lucas increases the reward to $15,000, stating the $2,500 is money from drug seizures. Reward posters are placed across the county.

March 2005 — The one-year anniversary of the first death arrives without an arrest. Investigators continue to receive tips on a monthly basis.

Nov. 16, 2005 — The SBI verbally notifies Hickory police there was a match to a convicted offender to the North Carolina DNA database on the evidence the department submitted.

Jan. 12, 2006 — A written report of that match is sent to Hickory per the SBI crime lab policy.

March 23, 2006 — Investigators receive a key tip.

March 23, 2006 — At 6 p.m., Derek Morris Colson, 39, is arrested in Asheville. He's charged by Hickory police with felony murder in the death of Lail and by Catawba County sheriff's deputies with felony attempted murder in the assault of Linebarger. Charges are pending in Dickens' death.

March 24, 2006 — Colson has his first appearance in court. Bond is denied. A probable cause hearing is set for April 12.

Feb. 13, 2009 — Superior Court Judge Yvonne Mims Evans suppresses three statements key to the prosecution's case that Colson made to officers the night he was arrested.

Feb. 18, 2009 — Colson makes bond and leaves the Catawba County jail.

July 17, 2009 — Evans dismisses the district attorney's office appeal that sought to re-admit Colson's statements.