At the last minute, a surprise hearing has been set for Monday, Dec. 15, at 10 a.m. in the case of Nathan Summerfield, the Ohio man accused of strangling and stabbing the mother of his child while the couple vacationed on Hatteras Island during July Fourth week in 2012.
The hearing was announced in a brief Saturday afternoon media release from the Dare County Sheriff’s Office that gave no details.
Summerfield, 29, last appeared in court just last Monday for a routine hearing at which legal motions were heard in the case. The trial in the first-degree murder case is scheduled to begin on Feb. 2 and is expected to last a week or two.
Lynn Jackenheimer, also from Ohio, was last seen alive on the night of July 3, chasing ghost crabs with her two children. Summerfield later dropped the children off with relatives in Ohio, and disappeared.
The 13-year-old girl, Jackenheimer’s daughter from a previous relationship, and the 3-year-old boy, her son with Summerfield, were unharmed. He was eventually tracked down and arrested on Aug. 15 in an Ohio motel room.
After a frantic search by law enforcement officials and friends and family, Jackenheimer’s body was found on July 14 in the brush off a Frisco cul-de-sac. She was 33.