Ernest D. Pheasant, Sr., has received a sentence of life in prison for the murder of his ex-wife, Marie Walkingstick Pheasant. 

In 2013, Marie’s body was found in a vehicle that investigators later determined was intentionally set on fire. An autopsy revealed that she died from stab wounds to the neck and abdomen.

Over a decade after Marie Walkingstick Pheasant’s body was found in a burned-out vehicle in Cherokee, the community has finally received a modicum of closure as her husband, Ernest Dwayne Pheasant, has pleaded guilty to committing the murder. 

A Swain County man is facing a federal charge for allegedly killing his wife in 2013, announced Dena J. King U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. 

Nearly a decade after 26-year-old Marie Walkingstick Pheasant’s body was found in a burned-out vehicle in Cherokee’s Big Cove community, her husband Ernest Dwayne Pheasant, 46, has been arrested for her murder.