Lesley Eugene Warren was born on October 15, 1967, in Candler, North Carolina. Warren began exhibiting signs of antisocial behavior at a young age, struggling with establishing emotional connections, which further worsened around 1970, after the birth of his baby brother.
Around the mid-1970s, Warren’s condition worsened while attending elementary school in Candler, in western North Carolina. But by the end of 1981, his mental condition deteriorated rapidly, and he began to hang out with the wrong crowd, often with petty criminals. Warren started dabbling in criminal life, with drugs, engaging in burglaries, and even threatening his peers with physical violence. In 1982, Warren was brought to a local hospital to undergo a psychological evaluation and was eventually diagnosed with Conduct disorder and schizoid personality disorder. He was treated for the conditions and was soon discharged, in time, to attend Enka High School in September 1982. However, no one knew precisely what Warren was truly capable of; soon, he would become known by the infamous name, the “Babyface Killer.”
Warren returned to his mother’s house, and while she was away, he abducted and assaulted the next-door neighbor. He was arrested on October 4, 1982, but received a lenient sentence, as he was a juvenile. Warren was sent to the Juvenile Evaluation Center, where he remained until October 1985.
Upon his release, Warren returned to Candler and enlisted in the United States Army on April 4, 1986. While stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia, Warren found love and soon married Tracy Bradshaw. The marriage would produce two sons. In late 1986, Warren was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, after which he was transferred to Fort Drum in New York.
But the good behavior only lasted a few months, and on May 15, 1987, Warren murdered 20-year-old Patsy Dianne Vineyard. Warren and Vineyard were having an affair, after her husband, Michael Vineyard, was sent away to partake in a field maneuvers exercise. The two went on a date, started using drugs, and Warren raped the woman by strangulation. Vineyard’s body was dumped into the Black River near Sackets Harbor. Her body was found about a month later, floating in Lake Ontario.
Warren would be dishonorably discharged from the Army on June 17, 1988, for going AWOL. By the fall of 1988, Warren and his family had resettled in Spartanburg, but the pair began to argue over his drug use, and he eventually abandoned them and headed back to Candler.
Once there, he found work as a cashier at a store near his mother’s house and enrolled in a 3-month training program for truck drivers. On March 10, 1989, Warren completed the program and took a job with a trucking outfit in Anderson, South Carolina.
On August 26 of that year, Warren came across 42-year-old Velma Faye Gray, who had suffered a vehicle accident, five miles from Travelers Rest. He lured the woman into his truck, drove to a wooded area, and beat her to death, discarding her body in Lake Bowen.
On December 25, 1989, Warren met 39-year-old Jayme Denise Hurley, a counselor at the Juvenile Evaluation Center in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Warren physically assaulted and strangled Hurley to death. On the following day, he confessed this act to his brother Laron, who then helped him bury the body in a pit located within the Pisgah National Forest.
On July 13, 1990, Warren met a cocktail waitress named Teri Quinby in High Point, North Carolina. The two knew each other, and two days later, he was invited to a picnic, where he met 21-year-old Katherine Noel Johnson. After a few drinks, Warren and Johnson went on a motorcycle ride, stopping at an abandoned soccer field, where he raped and strangled the young woman with her bra.
Lesley Eugene Warren was soon arrested, and his trial began on April 13, 1993. Warren pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, but was extradited to North Carolina in early 1995 to stand trial for the death of Hurley. Warren was sentenced to death on October 6, 1995.
As of February 2025, Warren remains on death row at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, awaiting execution, as he is among the inmates who have completely exhausted their appeals.
Written By: John G. Clark Jr.