Pregnant woman executed for refusing abortion

Candace Pickens, 23, was found shot to death in an Asheville park. Police suspect her boyfriend pulled the trigger. 

Candace Pickens had fallen in love with being a mother to her little boy, Zachaeus.

Her Facebook page is full of photos documenting the bond between mother and child as it strengthened over birthdays, holidays and visits with their extended, close-knit family.

“When she found out she was pregnant, she was scared at first,” the 23-year-old's aunt, Irene Jenny Pickens, told The Washington Post. “But once she had that baby, it was so natural for her.

“She loved being a mother. And no matter what she was going through, I think he was the one thing that kept her going.”

One of the things Candace Pickens was going through in recent months, relatives said, was a volatile and abusive relationship — one she managed to keep hidden from some of the people who knew her best in and around Asheville, N.C., where she lived.

Her boyfriend, Nathaniel Elijah Dixon, had a violent history that included attempted robbery and allegations of domestic violence against another woman with whom he had a child, according to the Citizen-Times . In addition to Dixon's extensive criminal history, police think he has possible ties to a Los Angeles street gang.

When Pickens recently discovered that she was pregnant with Dixon's child, abortion was not an option, she told friends and family members.

She would have a second child, she insisted.
Now, relatives think it was that insistence that may have led to her death.

Source: Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post