BURLINGTON — Police said a love triangle is a possible motive for the 1999 killing of a Covington woman, for which a 42-year-old woman was arraigned Monday.

        Deborah L. Huiett faces one count of murder in the death of Tina Rae Fallis-Stevens, 45, a waitress and bartender whose mutilated remains were found near Hebron in 2000.

        Ms. Huiett, who was arrested in Albemarle, N.C. last week and brought to Boone County Friday, pleaded not guilty before Boone District Judge Michael Collins. She remains in the Boone County Jail on $1 million bond and faces another hearing May 20.

        Boone County Sheriff's Detective Todd Kenner said a man in jail in another state on unrelated charges knew both women and is being investigated in the case. He said the man was seeing both Ms. Huiett and Ms. Fallis-Stevens.

        “I don't think Tina was aware of the other angle of the triangle,” Detective Kenner said.

        Members of Ms. Fallis-Stevens' family were in court for the arraignment — the first time they had seen Ms. Huiett. Afterward, a cousin, Tanya Maddin of Newport, said the family is relieved an arrest has been made.

        After the five-minute hearing, there was heartache.

        Penny Abbott, one of Ms. Fallis-Stevens' sisters, sobbed outside the courtroom. And Michelle Martin, Ms. Stevens' daughter, talked about the children who would never see their grandmother.

        “We are relieved that now, perhaps Tina Rae can rest in peace,” Ms. Maddin said. “We are also hopeful that a date of death will be ascertained so that we can finally give her a proper headstone.”

        None of this offered much consolation to Ms. Martin, who said knowing there was an arrest provided no comfort on Mother's Day Sunday.

        “Any time you have a Mother's Day and no mother, it doesn't make it any better for me,” Ms. Martin said.

        Monday's arraignment is the latest step in a three-year journey Ms. Maddin called “a road filled with not only heavy hearts but with both fears and worry.”

        “Fear that another innocent life may be taken at the hands of a brutal killer,” Ms. Maddin said. “Fear of not knowing if and when the killer would strike again. Worry that they may have gotten off with murder.”

        Ms. Martin said she last saw her mother around June 1, 1999. Three days later, she spoke to her by telephone but never heard from her after that.

        Ms. Maddin said the divorced Ms. Fallis-Stevens worked at several taverns in Kenton and Boone counties. She said Ms. Fallis-Stevens and Sam Stevens of Boone County had been divorced five years at the time of the disappearance.

        Ms. Stevens' body was found April 10, 2000. A cleaning crew of Boone County Jail inmates found human bones in a garment bag along a steep slope of Ky. 20.

        Detective Kenner said at the time Ms. Stevens was not officially reported missing until April 26, 2000. State forensic anthropologist Dr. Emily Craig identified the remains as those of Ms. Stevens.

        “She was stabbed to death, dismembered, stuffed into a bag and thrown over a hill like a piece of trash,” Ms. Maddin said Monday.

        Not much is known about Ms. Huiett.

        Detective Kenner said Ms. Huiett was employed as a meat cutter in North Carolina and had moved there in 2000. He said she and the male suspect have since broken up.

        Ms. Huiett worked for D & M Meat Packing of Albemarle, a city of about 21,000 about 45 miles northeast of Charlotte.

        Plant owner Gary Langford said Ms. Huiett worked there for nine months in 2000, left for about a year and returned in March 2002.

        “She's an excellent employee,” Mr. Langford said. “She wanted to come back, I had no hesitation to bring her back. I don't believe she's guilty.”

        Ms. Huiett is cooperating with authorities, and another arrest in the long-unsolved case is anticipated. She also was charged with tampering with physical evidence.

        It was not known whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty in the case. Ms. Maddin said only one sentence is acceptable.

        “My family, of course, wants the maximum penalty in this case,” Ms. Maddin said. “You can mark my words when I say that I will personally beg and plead to the judge, prosecutor and every member of the jury to see that the maximum penalty is handed down.

        “No person should have to suffer the fate that Tina has suffered.”

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