WINTON, N.C.—William Curtis Futrell, the Franklin man accused of killing two elderly sisters from Emporia, is still awaiting trial—more than a year-and-a-half after his arrest.

Futrell was arrested in November 2008 and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the 2006 deaths of 74-year-old Dorothy Hobbs and 71-year-old Nellie Bradley.

The sisters’ bodies were found in a wooded area near Murfreesboro, N.C., in August 2006. The car the two women were last seen traveling in was found that same night near Boykins.

Calls to Valerie Asbell, the district attorney for Hertford County, N.C., were not returned. However, an employee in Asbell’s office said no trial date had been set for Futrell and she didn’t know when it would be set.

Calls to Futrell’s court-appointed attorney, Terry Alford, were also not returned.

If convicted in the murders, Futrell could face the death penalty.