Two Slayings Shock North Carolina College

Nov. 18, 2005 — -- Residents of Cape Fear are proud of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the small college at the edge of town. But last year, the idyllic campus with the landmark clock tower was the site of two murders that rocked the college and the town.

On May 5, 2004, Jessica Faulkner, an 18-year-old freshman, was just wrapping up her first year at the school. Shortly after noon, Jessica's father, John Faulkner, got a disturbing call from a fellow student who said he had killed Jessica.

Shortly after that, a resident assistant from Cornerstone Hall, the dormitory where Jessica lived, phoned a 911 operator to report a death in the dorm. Authorities found Jessica's body in a classmate's room.

Curtis Dixon, a 20-year-old freshman who also lived in Jessica's dorm, was arrested and later confessed to the crime.

Faulkner's mother, Desiree Randolph, says no one knew much about Curtis Dixon's background. If they had, Dixon would probably never have been allowed near the school.

"I was under the impression that when you apply for college they checked you thoroughly," Randolph said.

Dixon was asked on his college application if he had been convicted of a crime. But he did not mention a larceny conviction or an 11-day stint in the Navy that ended when he was discharged for homicidal and suicidal tendencies, according to police.

Most important, Dixon did not mention that he had withdrawn from two other schools in the University of North Carolina system after facing certain expulsion. At the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, the problem was fighting. At North Carolina School of the Arts, he brandished a knife.

A school official there recommended an immediate and complete psychological assessment of Dixon, in part because he could not leave alone a female student he had stalked.

These are facts that UNC Wilmington never knew about.

"If you're putting a 20-year-old into a dorm with freshmen, with 17-year-old girls, where's he been? Why is he just now a freshman? I mean, that should have been a red flag," Randolph said.

She said the application question was not sufficient.

"Who's going to say 'yes?' Who's a felon? Who's going to say, 'Yes, I'm a known rapist, I'm a stalker?'"

Randolph said her daughter complained to one resident assistant and called home to say Dixon was stalking her.

"There were times I spoke to her in the dorm room and she'd say, 'Mom, I have to whisper because he might be right outside my door.'" Randolph said.

Jessica continually rejected Curtis's advances. On the last day of school, he made his move. Police say Dixon sent an instant message to Jessica and invited her back to his room, saying that he wanted to give her a gift.

"That's when he hit her over the head," Randolph said. "She was so tiny and he was huge, and she just didn't have a chance."

An autopsy report said Jessica was "hit on the back of the head, injected with a possible date rape drug, sexually assaulted and strangled." And after the assault, Dixon apparently stayed in the room. The next morning, he went to breakfast with a group of people and told them Faulkner was packing.

"They should have never allowed Curtis Dixon to be enrolled in that school," Randolph said.

The campus clock tower tolled 18 times as the semester came to an end, a sad memorial for each of Faulkner's 18 years of life. Little did the university know, just a month later another student would be killed by a classmate.

Christen Naujoks, a 21-year-old UNC Wilmington student, was terrified after she heard the news of Jessica Faulkner's horrifying death. Her ex-boyfriend, John Peck, was extremely bitter about the couple's break-up and had been making threatening phone calls.

In March 2004, Peck caught up with Naujoks in an isolated campus parking spot and tried to stop her from getting into her car. Naujoks and her mother immediately went to campus police to complain.

"I said, 'Can we change her parking spot?' He looked at me and he said, 'If we change it for her, we have to change it for everybody," said her mother, Holly Naujoks.

After repeatedly asking campus police for help, Naujoks eventually got a protection order from city police. Evidence later found at Peck's apartment included women's clothes and a wig, which police believe he used to follow Christen Naujoks in disguise.

In June 2004, Naujoks left a store with a birthday card for her mother and headed for home. Peck followed her to her off-campus apartment, carrying an automatic assault weapon. When Naujoks made her way to a staircase by the apartment parking lot, he began yelling at her and opened fire.

"We believe the first shot hit her when she was probably by the door," said sheriff's investigator Larry Hines.

Peck shot Naujoks at least 10 times, and the final shot was from point blank range. It was an execution, and a gruesome end that Naujoks's family relives daily.

"Who would think that you send your daughter to college and she comes back in a box?" said her father, Jerry Naujoks.

Peck also had a criminal past that he did not disclose on his application. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to assault on a female.

"The college application has a block: 'Have you been convicted of crimes?" And it's 'Yes' or 'No,' and then it goes into a drawer," Jerry Naujoks said. "Nobody checks."

In a written statement to ABC News, the president of University of North Carolina at Wilmington said the school is committed to "access and openness." But she, along with several other UNC officials, declined repeated interview requests.

A task force was formed at the university to improve safety. And new guidelines are being adopted , including an effort to share information about troubled students and a promise that admissions staff members will be trained to look for danger signs on applications. For the first time, this could trigger background checks.

The Naujoks hope that other parents will learn from the tragedy and make sure they send their children into safe environments.

"Moms and dads, check out the security at the campus," said Holly Naujoks. "See, if your child's in danger, there's a safe place for them to go -- a safe dorm to go that is guarded and protected, somebody's walking them to and from classes."

For more information about crime on campus, check out the Web site for Security on Campus, Inc.