The incident occurred in a Morganton neighborhood on Sept. 18, 2026. Morganton Public Safety officers were sent to the 300 block of Center Street, where they found the woman on the property shortly after arriving. The investigation led officers to accuse her boyfriend of confining and assaulting her inside the home.
Officers Find Victim Outside the Home
Responding officers found the woman outside the home and investigated the alleged confinement. The Charlotte Observer, citing an affidavit, reported that 56-year-old Terry Eugene Hawkins is accused of punching and slapping his girlfriend and preventing her from sleeping.
The affidavit, as described in the Observer's reporting, alleges that Hawkins kept the woman in the kitchen for hours and placed a mattress against the home's door to block her exit. It also describes allegations that he forced her from bed, doused her with water and used a leaf blower on her for hours. Officials said the woman eventually lost consciousness, was slapped until she woke up and was later put out of the home naked. Hawkins and the woman were in a dating relationship at the time, officials said.
Kidnapping and Domestic Violence Charges Filed
Hawkins was booked into the Burke County Jail under a no-bond order following his arrest, the same report notes. He faces felony second-degree kidnapping and misdemeanor domestic violence charges, with North Carolina court documents indicating the alleged conduct was committed for the purpose of terrorizing the victim.
Under North Carolina General Statute § 14-39, second-degree kidnapping is classified as a Class E felony, according to Justia Law. Separately, under N.C.G.S. § 14-32.5, domestic violence assault involving physical harm or threats against an intimate partner is generally prosecuted as a Class A1 misdemeanor, the state's highest misdemeanor offense level, according to the Cody Law Firm. That offense level carries potential jail time, supervised probation and mandatory intervention programs.
A Morganton Case Amid a Statewide Trend
Morganton, in Burke County, sits roughly 75 miles northwest of uptown Charlotte in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the county's population estimated at 88,655 residents as of July 2025, according to Hoodline. Morganton Public Safety maintains a department policy to document all domestic disturbance calls within city limits and to provide victims with Crime Victims' Rights Act paperwork, a protocol described by The Paper as creating a vital paper trail for prosecutors.
The case lands amid a broader statewide reckoning with domestic violence. In May 2026, the North Carolina Department of Justice announced a statewide effort to reduce domestic violence. That effort followed state data showing 102 female victims of domestic violence-related homicides statewide during 2025, according to official State Bureau of Investigation statistics reported by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. Separately, North Carolina public safety authorities reported in September 2026 that while overall crime categories fell statewide during the first half of the year, reported domestic violence incidents showed a concerning increase, an outlier against otherwise declining property and violent crime rates.
Statewide Reviews
According to The Daily Record, citing a May 15 press release from the North Carolina Attorney General's Office, five counties are authorized to conduct domestic violence fatality reviews.
