Hat left near wife’s burned body links husband to her 2013 death in NC, feds say
It’s been more than a decade since the body of Marie Walkingstick Pheasant was found badly burned inside a charred vehicle across the street from where she lived with her estranged husband in western North Carolina, federal prosecutors said.
Though her remains were nearly destroyed, an autopsy revealed she was stabbed in her neck and stomach after her body was discovered on Dec. 29, 2013, within the Qualla Boundary, territory that belongs to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, according to court documents.
Now, Ernest D. Pheasant Sr., a Swain County resident and member of the federally recognized tribe, has been sentenced to life in prison in connection with his wife’s death, according to a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina. His sentencing was held on April 3.
His defense attorney, Jack W. Stewart Jr., didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment April 4.
Marie Walkingstick Pheasant, who was also a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, was 26 years old when she was killed, according to court filings.
She was survived by two of her children, her brother and two sisters, according to Find a Grave, an online database of cemetery records. Her parents and her third child died before she died.
Ernest Pheasant, now 47, was linked to her death by DNA evidence, prosecutors said. Her killing had remained unsolved for several years.
Cold case investigation
Traces of Ernest Pheasant’s DNA were located on a Duke University hat that was found outside the burned vehicle containing Marie Pheasant’s body, according to court documents.
“Near the rear of the car,” there “was a blue Duke baseball cap lying among the leaves,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
In April 2022, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Missing and Murdered Unit launched an investigation into Marie Pheasant’s death while looking into cold cases in western North Carolina, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The evidence gathered in the case revealed the car and her body were set ablaze on purpose, court documents say.
She died before the fire, autopsy reveals
Marie Pheasant was no longer alive when Ernest Pheasant burned the vehicle, based on her autopsy, according to court documents.
“What remained of her airway was free of soot, meaning she died before the fire began,” court documents say.
Prosecutors said Ernest Pheasant fatally stabbed Marie Pheasant, put her body in the vehicle and drove toward Big Cove Road within the Qualla Boundary, then lit the fire.
The couple had a “discordant relationship” ahead of her death, Marie Pheasant’s cellphone records showed, according to court documents.
Marie Pheasant worked as a housekeeper at Harrah’s casino hotels and had attended Southwestern Community College in Jackson County, where she earned a certified nursing assistant degree, court documents say.
The evening before her body was found, investigators learned she was at the home she shared with Ernest Pheasant, prosecutors wrote in court filings. At the home, her blood was found on a mattress, according to prosecutors.
A guilty plea
Ernest Pheasant killed “Marie willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and with premeditation,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge on Aug. 16, prosecutors said.
“For over a decade, Marie’s family has endured the pain of losing their loved one without justice. Today, that changed,” U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said in a statement. “Ernest Pheasant will pay for his heinous crime by spending the rest of his life behind bars.”
The case’s conclusion comes after the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Missing and Murdered Unit was established in 2019 to revisit cases involving the disappearances and killings American Indian and Alaska Natives, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“While nothing can undo (Marie Pheasant’s) family’s loss, I hope this sentence brings them a measure of justice,” Ferguson said.
This story was originally published April 4, 2025 at 12:58 PM with the headline "Hat left near wife’s burned body links husband to her 2013 death in NC, feds say."
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