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Slaying Suspect Hit By Truck Hours After Being Named Person of Interest

Stephen Headley: Suspect

SOUTHAMPTON, NJ – Hours after police say he dumped the body of a promising, well-liked South Jersey college student facedown in her own blood near a soccer field, Stephen Headley found himself facedown in the street, writhing in pain, after being floored by a pickup.

Headley’s broken ankles, cracked ribs and fractured back may all heal someday, but Nicole Ayres, 22, died after Headley allegedly stabbed her multiple times in the head, neck and back Monday morning.

According to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, Headley, 28, of Florence, called his grandmother in Medford on Monday night – after the discovery of Ayres’ body had hit the news – and asked her to take him to his mother’s home in Pemberton Township so they could all meet.

He later fled the home and was struck by a Chevrolet pickup a block away at Anderson and Pemberton-Browns Mills roads.

A neighbor there said Headley told his mother he murdered Ayres and dumped her body near a soccer field in rural Southampton Township earlier that morning.

“He told her about the murder. He confessed to her. He started running down the street ’cause she called the cops on him,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified. “He got crushed by that truck. His shoes flew off.”

Headley’s mother fought back tears yesterday as she stood at the doorway of her small duplex in the Sunbury Village section of Pemberton Township, torn by the brutal crime of which her son is accused. The woman, who did not want her name published, said her son had anger issues and was suicidal when he came to see her Monday night.

She confirmed that she called police after he told her what happened.

Headley’s mother said she didn’t know Ayres but believed that the woman knew her son through mutual friends and met up at a Wawa. Authorities believe that the slaying occurred early Monday but don’t know how the two knew one another.

Headley graduated from the Burlington County Institute of Technology in Medford in 2000.