Pregnant woman found dead along road, VA officials say. Navy boyfriend convicted
A U.S. naval officer was found guilty of murdering his pregnant girlfriend in 2022, prosecutors in Virginia said.
Emmanuel Coble, 27, was convicted Wednesday, April 23, of first-degree murder, murdering a pregnant woman with intent to terminate pregnancy, the premeditated killing of the fetus of another, concealing a dead body and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, WRIC reported.
“Today a jury of Hanover citizens delivered a verdict which gave long awaited justice to Raquiah King and her family,” Mackenzie Babichenko, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Hanover County, said in an April 23 statement on Facebook.
McClatchy News reached out to the U.S. Navy for comment April 24 but did not receive an immediate response.
According to the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, the body of 20-year-old Raquiah King was found along a road in Glen Allen in July 2022. Coble was arrested in August, less than a month later.
King’s mother told WWBT her daughter was 12 weeks pregnant and Coble was the baby’s father.
Coble drove King to an abortion clinic in Virginia Beach a day before her body was found, but she did not allow an abortion procedure to take place, according to court documents, WRIC reported.
According to the outlet, citing court documents, King and Coble were having problems because he “did not want to be a father to (her) baby.”
Coble is set to be sentenced in July and faces life in prison, WTVR reported.
King’s brother, Gregory, told WTVR he was “grateful for everything.”
“She was a ray of sunlight. She was fun, beautiful, courageous and strong,” he said about his sister.
Glen Allen is about a 15-mile drive northwest from Richmond.
This story was originally published April 24, 2025 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Pregnant woman found dead along road, VA officials say. Navy boyfriend convicted."
