David Wesley Prevatte from Lumberton, North Carolina is accused of killing his 5-year-old niece Paitin Fields. On November 13, 2017 Paitin Fields was brought to Pender Memorial Hospital, North Carolina by Prevatte, unresponsive and suffering from what was initially reported as a seizure. She was transferred to another facility but died three days later on November 16, 2017. An autopsy later determined she had been strangled and sexually abused. Prevatte was identified as a suspect in 2018 but was not arrested until February 4, 2022 in Bayou Blue, Louisiana. Prevatte faces charges of first-degree murder, first-degree statutory rape of a child by an adult and first-degree sex offense with a child by an adult. If convicted of first-degree murder, Prevatte faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.