Air Force MP charged in 2003 slaying of Georgia Southern student

<p>An Air Force Reserve military policeman was formally charged Wednesday with killing a pregnant Georgia Southern University student whose body was found on the Fort Benning military reservation in December 2003.</p><p>Prosecutors read the charges of murder and feticide against Michael Antonio Natson, 24, from Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in the death of Ardena Carter, who vanished Sept. 11, 2003 after telling friends she intended to walk to the university library for exercise.</p><p>Skeletal remains of the 23-year-old Carter and a 24-week-old fetus were found by hunters in a remote area two months later, about 200 miles west of the GSU campus in Statesboro.</p><p>Natson, originally from Statesboro, was on active duty at Fort Benning at the time of Carter's slaying, according to Gregory Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI in Atlanta.</p><p>Statesboro police said then that Carter was believed to have a boyfriend stationed Fort Benning.</p><p>U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth ordered Natson held without bond pending a hearing to be scheduled next week. Natson, who could face the death penalty under the charges, told the judge he intended to hire his own lawyer.</p><p>Natson was indicted June 16, but the indictment remained sealed until Faircloth ordered it opened in court Wednesday.</p><p>___</p><p>Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer</p>