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BOLIVIA – Nearly two years after being arrested, a Calabash man has pleaded guilty to the murder of a couple and the attempted murder of their teenage daughter.
In Brunswick County Superior Court on Monday, Torrence O’Neal Helms, 32, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon, and one count of fleeing to elude arrest.
He was sentenced to two life sentences for the double murder, and between approximately 17 and 22 years for the attempted murder. He was eligible for the death penalty.
Authorities arrested Helms just hours after the Jan. 9, 2019 fatal stabbings of Dennis Edmund Rowell, 66, and Theresa Lee Rowell, 55, at their home on Ivey Stone Court in Shallotte. The couple’s daughter, Irene Elizabeth Rowell, then 19, was also stabbed but survived and was able to escape and call the police.