5 shocking details about Danielle Locklear's murder

The disappearance of Danielle Locklear, a South View High School freshman, in March 2014 from Hope Mills, North Carolina, witnessed the tight-knit community banding together to search tirelessly for the missing 15-year-old.

The weeks-long search came to a heartbreaking conclusion when Locklear's dead body was found floating in the South River with cinderblocks tied to her waist and ankles. Further examination revealed that there was a sock stuffed inside her throat, and a subsequent autopsy ruled that she died of asphyxiation.

An investigation led detectives to the victim's 17-year-old ex-boyfriend Je’Michael Malloy who later confessed to the murder, claiming that he snapped and strangled her before disposing of her body with the help of a friend, Dominic Lock.

This week's City Confidential episode titled The Telltale Creek revisits Danielle Locklear's shocking murder case. The episode will air on A&E on Thursday, March 30, at 10:00 pm ET.

The synopsis states:

"People in charming Hope Mills, North Carolina are on edge when a high school freshman vanishes while on her way to meet a friend. When she turns up dead three weeks later, the community rallies to flush out the killer."

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Danielle Locklear's murder: Five key details to know about the Hope Mills disappearance and murder case

1) Locklear went missing while staying at her grandparents' house in Hope Mills, South Carolina

In the summer of 2013, Danielle Locklear moved into her grandparents' house in Hope Mills. The following March, a freshman at South View High School in Hope Mills, she disappeared after leaving home, informing her grandfather and taking his permission to go to a friend’s house down the street. Locklear was reported missing a few hours later, on March 11, when she didn't return home and her family and friends failed to get in touch with her.

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2) Volunteer search parties and billboards with her face planted on them failed to produce any results

Once the 15-year-old was reported missing, the Hope Mills Police Department organized former volunteer search parties and started searching the town looking for the missing teenager. They also put up posters and billboards with Locklear's face on them in the neighborhood, asking for help in locating her, but despite all of their attempts, they were unable to locate her or find any helpful leads.

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3) Authorities learned about her breakup with a senior from nearby Fayetteville

While questioning Danielle Locklear's friends about her last reported whereabouts, authorities learned about her recent breakup with 17-year-old Je'Michael Malloy, a high school senior from Fayetteville.

They believed that the missing girl was at a popular hangout spot near the creek with Malloy the night she went missing, but he claimed that he hadn't spoken to his ex-girlfriend in days. Malloy further claimed that he was at home the night she went missing.

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4) Danielle Locklear's body was located in the creek a few weeks later

A few weeks after Locklear was reported missing, on April 2, an off-duty officer discovered Danielle Locklear's partially submerged body in the South River about 20 miles outside of Hope Mills, close to the Cumberland-Sampson county border. While pulling the body out of the water, authorities found cinderblocks tied to her waist and ankles to weigh it down.

A sock was found stuffed down her throat, and a medical examiner revealed that she died of asphyxiation.

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5) Je'Michael Malloy confessed to the killing a while after the body was found

Je'Michael Malloy admitted to authorities that he and his friend Dominic Lock picked Danielle Locklear up that night and went to the creek, where he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend when she refused to take a pregnancy test in front of him. Reports state that Locklear previously told him that she was pregnant. But tests showed that she wasn't pregnant at the time of her murder.

Malloy claimed that in that moment, he snapped and strangled her to death before Lock shoved a sock down her throat and they both dumped her in the South River.