A Possible Motive
Police release more info on the Amber Wesley murder caseBy Brad Bauer
Article Photos
MARIETTA - Questions over Amber Wesley's possible involvement with another man and the paternity of her youngest child might have led to her death, police said.
"There was an argument concerning her relationship with another male," Washington County sheriff's Lt. Detective Brian Schuck said Thursday.
It was the first time police offered a possible motive for Wesley's death. The 21-year-old mother of two young children was found bound, strangled and wrapped in a blanket Tuesday afternoon in the bedroom of her mobile home at 85 Lang Farm Road.
Her live-in boyfriend, Noal Quattlebaum, 22, is charged with her death. He is expected to be arraigned at 1 p.m. today on murder charges in Marietta Municipal Court.
Schuck said Wesley recently filed a request for child support in Washington County Juvenile Court. He said it appears there is some question as to who fathered the youngest child. Wesley had two daughters, the youngest is almost 7 months old and the other is just under 2 years old. A DNA test was ordered, the results of which are pending.
The children are staying with Quattlebaum's parents in Waterford. Officials with Children Services are reviewing the situation, said Sheriff Larry Mincks.
"(Children Services) are working on this as we speak," Mincks said. "The grandparents already kept the children four days a week, while (Wesley and Quattlebaum) worked."
Mincks said the couple worked at Influent, a telemarketing company near Reno.
On Thursday the sheriff's office also released the 911 calls placed by Felicia Quattlebaum, Noal's mother.
Police say after the murder, Noal Quattlebaum left his residence and went to his parents' home at 301 Main St. in Waterford.
On the recordings, a distraught Felicia Quattlebaum describes how her son explained the murder. She told the dispatcher she had snuck upstairs, away from her son, to place the 4:12 p.m. call.
"I have an emergency. I cannot talk loud," Felicia reported to the dispatcher.
"OK, go ahead," the dispatcher said.
"My son is at my house. He is suicidal. He accidentally killed his girlfriend. And if (someone) calls the law he is going to run. I don't know what to do," she said.
After providing the dispatcher with directions to her son's residence and to her home, Felicia Quattlebaum told police what she knew about the murder.
"He said they got into a fight. She hit him in the face with a coffee cup and he choked her. But I don't know all the details. I just know he's not in his right state of mind right now and I don't know what to do."
While Felicia Quattlebaum was providing directions to her home, she reminded the dispatcher that officers and an ambulance had been to her home earlier in the day.
Mincks said in an unrelated incident, around 11:30 a.m., officers responded to the Waterford residence on a report of a child in respiratory distress. The child was Wesley's 23-month-old, who was staying with Felicia and her husband, Mark.
"It was completely unrelated, but she was having some kind of breathing problem," Mincks said. "She was perfectly OK when we got there and they refused treatment (or transport to a hospital)."
Mincks said the timing of the incident was eerie.
"From what Noal has said, this happened about the same time he was strangling her mother," Mincks said.
Noal Quattlebaum was taken into custody at his parents' residence without incident.
Mincks said Quattlebaum remains on a suicide watch at the jail.
"Mental health (officials) have talked to him and cleared him, but we're still continuing to keep him in a holding cell by himself where he is being monitored," the sheriff said.
A funeral for Wesley is planned for Monday.
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Lockhart
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07-27-08 6:54 AM
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Too true breaktime,this is what he say's in his version.What if the paternity test show's these allegation's correct?What if it show's them wrong? No matter how you choose to look at it or which (side) you choose,those children are the one's who will suffer the most,they lose both parental figure's,NOW child welfare will step in and finish turning their world's upside down in great deatail,just to cover their own ass's,and what will come out of all this in the end?Pain and emotional scarring which will never heal for the kid's. Meanwhile,we all sit back and choose side's on right and wrong and how best to deal with it after the fact,no wonder it run's in cycle's.
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skyeangel
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07-26-08 6:53 PM
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Tell me why Ambers mother does not have her babies I heard his mother has a restraining order on her so she cant even see them. Give me a break Carol has lost her only child and now she cant even be with her grandbabies whats the world coming to.She needs to be with her granddaughters.Why did it take Noahs mother so long to call 911.Something fishy is goin on here.Carol may God be with you . Keep faith your grand babies will be with you where they belong.
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breaktime
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07-26-08 8:12 AM
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I don't think either of these kids are low life's. I don't have a clue who these young people are. But if the rest of you would reread your own post, perhaps you would see how we are where we are in our behavior. Look at how personal someone making comments hits you. Did it ever cross your mind that the news and media are giving you what is said and then placing it for you to read or listen to. should any of the media sources be trying to sway a thinking pattern shame on them. Is this not the way stories come about you take into account each individual story then it is put to the courts in hopes to find the truth of what took place. The truth from where I sit is. There has been a great tragedy that has effected many lives and to continue finding yet another to name call and blast as the lowlife makes no sense none past emotions spilling over. We need to get a grip and better educate and be more supportive, so this type thing does not happen. There is a ripple effect of damage here.
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notamyname
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07-26-08 6:59 AM
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WildClarySage,kimtone61 , You two are so right, this is disgusting. Seems like the media is trying to justify what this lowlife did to this poor women..Where was the state in all this?,,,When they went to court and she recanted her statement, it`s all part of being a battered women, and it`s hard to tell what he threatened her with,, Why couldn't they step in and take over the charges, when they seen what was going on ????
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kimtone61
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07-26-08 4:14 AM
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I think this is enough! It seems to me that the media is trying to paint her as a bad girl. I hope her parents step in or some of her family and gets these two babies. my opinion is let her rest at peace now and he should get the max allowed for this horriable crime
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WildClarySage
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07-25-08 12:44 PM
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Yesterday, it was "she kept dropping the charges" and today it's "she was cheating and the baby might not have been his"... what will it be tomorrow? She forced him at gunpoint to strangle her? The News and Marietta officials seem*******and determined to make sure everybody knows she was askin' for it. Where is the justice for a woman murdered in our community?
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