Investigation Discovery to document 1990s Charlotte serial killer

CHARLOTTE, N.C — Two decades ago, Charlotte's serial killer murdered 10 women during one of the city’s deadliest decades.

A new documentary about Henry Louis Wallace’s murders, called “Bad Henry,” will premiere on July 24 at 9 p.m. on the Investigation Discovery channel.

Even after Wallace was in jail, the case had a rippling impact on local law enforcement.

[Images from the Henry Louis Wallace case]

On the outside, Wallace, known as “Bad Henry," looks harmless, but he is the most prolific and cunning killer in Charlotte’s history.

"If Henry did not get on drugs, it would have been a long time before we caught him,” said Mecklenburg County Sheriff-elect Garry McFadden.

McFadden worked on the Wallace case as a Charlotte-Mecklenburg homicide investigator.

"Opens up a lot of wounds, sore spots, but I think it's time,” McFadden said.

McFadden and the men and women who worked on the case will be featured in the two-hour documentary.

From 1991 through 1994, Wallace murdered 10 Charlotte women, Sharon Nance, Caroline Love, Shawna Hawk, Audrey Spain, Valencia Jumper, Michelle Stinson, Vanessa Mack, Betty Jean Baucom, Brandi Henderson and Debra Slaughter.

Wallace met all of his victims working with them in east Charlotte fast-food restaurants.

"We have to say we did not do everything right and we did not handle this case the way it should have been handled,” McFadden said.

Officers said they didn't visit the victims' jobsites, but between 1991 and 1994, there were 322 murders with five to eight homicide detectives working each case.

"Most of the families, I would say, not forgive us, but now they better understand what we went through during those times,” McFadden said.

The special will explore not only Wallace, but also the epidemic of crack-fueled violence that produced a surge of murders unlike anything Charlotte has ever seen.

The documentary is about a group of average women, mothers, sisters and daughters who worked hard to take care of their families whose only mistake was that they trusted a human predator.

"For the citizens in America, they are average. For us, they are Henry Wallace's victims that will live in our hearts forever,” McFadden said.

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