By Julia Oliver

“I went back, but I’m kind of off to myself,” said Dalphine Bynum, who is married to Melvin’s brother. “There’s a lot that I don’t understand. And I want to keep my distance.”

Marnita Bynum was found strangled in the trunk of her car Aug. 2. She was 40. Less than three weeks later, authorities charged her husband with the crime. Some congregation members were surprised to hear the pastor had filed for divorce in June.

Marnita was always smiling, they said, and the couple had just returned from a family vacation to Florida the weekend she was killed.

“I said, ‘God, she’s going through all that and she just didn’t tell nobody,’” said Claretha Williams. She has attended the small church on Woodland Avenue for 11 years and said Marnita ate at her home three or four times a week.

Williams and several others said they plan to attend the probable cause hearing today in Rockingham. For many, it’s to put their disbelief to rest.

“I have to see their facts,” Dalphine Bynum said. “They have to prove it to me either way.”

Moore County Sheriff Lane Carter said he expects the hearing to be continued.

The investigation that led to Melvin Bynum’s arrest spanned three jurisdictions. The couple lived in Moore County, the church is in Sanford, and Marnita Bynum’s body was found along a Richmond County road. Authorities have disclosed little about the crime. After Melvin Bynum’s arrest, Richmond County Sheriff Dale Furr said that members of the congregation were reluctant to cooperate with investigators, either out of loyalty to their pastor or out of fear.

No fear

“He just basically came in and said that he didn’t want anybody talking to the media,” said Edward Moses, a member for six years. Melvin Bynum told the group to let assistant pastor Warren Anderson speak for the church, and his lawyer would speak for him.

Williams said Melvin’s request raised eyebrows.

“I was wondering why he needed a lawyer,” she said.

Jacquelyn Carter, Marnita’s mother, said she will not speak publicly about her daughter’s relationship with Melvin. She worries that her grandchildren, Brock Lamar, who is 17, and Marquail Lamont, who is 20, might lose a father, too. She said only that Melvin started the church more than a decade ago with a good heart.

“In a time of need he was there. In a time of help he was there. And then something went bad,” she said, but would not elaborate. “The snowball, the little sand, became from a little piece of sand coming down the hill, to the death of my daughter.”

She said she would like people to know how much her daughter loved her family and her church.

“My daughter was beautiful. She lived life beautifully,” Carter said. “She wasn’t supposed to go like this.”

Bubbly nickname

“She said there was a lot of women being battered and they didn’t have nowhere to go,” Williams said.

The pastor and his wife presided over different spheres in the church, members said. Both leaders had “armor-bearers” -- companions who would accompany them places or carry things for them. Marnita’s armor-bearers would often show her around Sanford, because she was from Chicago and didn’t know the area well, Williams said. Melvin had one armor-bearer, who would escort him to the office or carry his books, she said.

“It’s like having a best friend that you can depend on and count on,” said Edward Moses, who had once trained to be Melvin’s armor-bearer. His girlfriend, Nicole Ortega, once filled that role for Marnita.

Melvin led services, and Marnita spoke after church every third Sunday. She led with a light, open-minded touch, Williams said, while he took stronger stances and was more exacting.

“She gave everybody a chance to move on different things, whereas if he thought somebody wasn’t qualified or capable, he wouldn’t put them in that position,” she said. She was the teacher; he was the preacher.

Melvin Bynum would preach against drugs, against “young people fornicating,” and about a man’s place in the home, Williams said. He would say that “God made man the head and woman was his helpmate,” she said, “and a man’s supposed to take care of his family.”

While the Bynums’ charisma brought people together for 12 years, Williams said the events of recent weeks have divided them. “A lot of people’s upset and biting people’s head off for what they said,” she said.

Ousted from church

“They will not allow me to get my baby’s plants,” she said.

Kim Lytes, a former congregation member, said she was told to leave the church last Sunday.

“I think it’s because I’ve been supporting Miss Jackie (Carter),” she said.

Williams said she is still working through her opinions. For many, two people that the church loved are now gone. And one they trusted -- and who inspired them -- has been accused of a horrible crime. Williams doesn’t know what to think about her pastor.