WADESBORO — “I don’t want anyone to forget about her and the five babies she left behind,” pleads Starla Gunn, three years after the murder of her best friend and adopted cousin, Felicia Ann Rollins.
Rollins, 36, of Marshville was reported missing on September 5, 2021.
For three long, anxious days her family and friends gathered in prayer and held out hope that their Felicia, the girl whose smile could brighten anyone’s bad day, would be found safe.
Gunn, who was babysitting for Felicia up until the Friday she went missing, remembers with heart breaking clarity the call she received from a DSS worker.
“At first when she said they found Felicia, I was so happy,” recalls Gunn, the moment still a kaleidoscope of jumbled puzzle pieces in her mind. For many bewildered seconds, Gunn clutched the phone, her elation preventing her from understanding what the DSS worker meant.
Her joy was to be short lived, traded for denial and despair, as understanding began to take hold. In her mind ‘found’ should have meant coming home.
“I remember my husband and my mom came rushing in,” shares Gunn, reliving the moment her pain brought her to her knees.
She had just been told that Rollins would not be coming back home to Marshville, to her babies… instead Rollins was found dumped in a wooded area in the early morning hours of September 8, at the National Wildlife Refuge.
Suddenly, the best friend Gunn had known since wearing diapers, the girl who had been present through every major milestone and hurdle in her life, was just… gone. In one quick murderous moment, Rollin’s life ended and Gunn’s would never be the same again.
“We used to love riding around with the wind in our hair… Felicia didn’t like to be a part of drama and we used to really enjoy getting away from everything on the open road,” says Gunn.
Sometimes these car trips would find them ending up at Hatley’s Skating Rink, blowing off steam as they sang along to all the latest hits thundering out of the rink’s speakers.
Both girls grew up with a love of Halloween and all things spooky. For Rollins, Halloween was a favorite holiday, and for Gunn, her birthday.
“Felicia loved sugar skulls and flamingos. She had just gotten an umbrella and bag with sugar skulls on them… those were missing too,” she recounts, reminded anew of her friend’s murder. “All of her belongings were gone, they weren’t at the hotel either.”
Gunn states that Rollins was taken to the America’s Best Inn, where it is believed that inside one budget friendly room, her life was ripped from her.
Within days of Rollin’s disappearance, and the discovery of her body, Cedric Sturdivant was arrested for her murder.
Almost three years later, and he is still residing in jail, charged, among other crimes, with concealing/failing to report a death, and first degree murder.
Gunn wonders when she will have an opportunity to face Sturdivant in court, “It has been almost three years and we have never heard anything about a trial.”
Sturdivant had an initial court date of September 14, 2021, and most recently appeared before the court on Monday, April 8, 2024.
Calls to the attorney listed as Sturdivant’s current legal representation have gone unanswered and unreturned as of time of print.
Gunn wants a chance to face Sturdivant in court and ask him why he killed her best friend, “I want him to see my face, the tears I have shed every day because he took her life.”
Sturdivant is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, as is the American way, but Gunn is waiting for a trial, waiting for her chance to face Sturdivant, and hear about the last moments of her friend’s life.
Sturdivant, too, has been left waiting almost three years for his day in court.
The memories of her friend eventually proved too much to bear, and Gunn moved away from her hometown of Monroe, explaining, “I just could not take it anymore.”
She is afraid Rollins will be forgotten, reduced to a footnote in the lore of a small town or recounted as a cautionary tale to be shuddered over on dark nights.
These days, Gunn prefers to think of her friend as hidden safely away in a hum-drum life at the seashore, maybe in witness protection.
“I couldn’t see her when she died so it’s easy to imagine her off somewhere… still alive.”
According to her life-long friend, Rollins loved digging her toes in the sandy shore, lying with her face turned up to soak in the warmth of the sun.
Gunn wants people to know Rollins loved her five children with all her heart, that she was the kind of woman who wasn’t scared to voice her opinions, she loved acting silly, her favorite color was pink or any bright colors, and getting lost in a good movie.
There is currently no word on when a date will be set for Sturdivant’s trial. This is a developing story and updates will be provided as they become available.