A District Court judge has set a $450,000 bond for the woman accused of murdering Shirley Goodnight Pierce in her Kannapolis home last week.
Marlene Johnson would also be required to wear an electronic monitoring device if she posts the bond.
Prosecutors had asked that Johnson be held without bond. Several of Pierce’s relatives burst into tears when they heard the bond amount.
During a hearing today, the prosecutor said investigators had found the Pierce’s mail and photos of the victim — including aerial shots of her home and neighborhood — in Johnson’s home.
Search warrants detailed a troubled relationship between the two women. According to the warrants, Johnson had accused Pierce of having an affair with her husband, an executive at Tuscarora Yarns, and had assaulted and harassed her over several years.
Both Pierce and Johnson’s now-estranged husband had obtained restraining orders against her.