Police: Double slayings connected

By Donna Swicegood

The unsolved murders of two Iredell County couples - neirly eight months apart - were probably commited by the same individuals.
Sheriff Phil Redmond announced Wednesday that authorities believe the double slaying of James and Delet Powell and Don and Sue Barker are related.
Redmond said he could not comment on exactly what evidence tied the two cases together.
Investigators have looked into the similarities of these two cases since the Barkers were found nearly a month ago.
Both slayings likely occured on a Thursday night, and both Don Barker and James Powell were involved in or had been store owners.
James Powell had retired after owning and operating several convenience-style stores in Iredell County.
Don Barker was the longtime owner and operator of Barker's Grocery on Turnersburg Highway.

Deputies look for clues in deaths of store owner, wife

By Donna Swicegood

A popular store owner and his wife were shot to death in their home sometime Thursday night or Friday morning.

Don Allen Barker Sr., 62, and his wife, Sue Jenkins Barker, 63, were found dead inside their home at 828 White's Farm Road, less than two miles from the store he operated for many years.

George Mooe, an employee of the store, called 911 just before 7 a.m. Friday after going to check on Barker, who should have arrived to open Barker's Grocery at 6 a.m.

Mooe said he went to the house, but it was dark and he couldn't see anything. He called Barker's son, Allen, and asked him if he had a key to the house.

"I told him his dad wasn't at work and his parents weren't answering the door," Mooe said.

Mooe went back to the store and returned to the house with Barker's niece. Then, he said, "I saw Don laying in there."

The Iredell County Sheriff's Office responded to find both of the Barkers dead.

Chief Rick Dowdle said Don Barker was last seen around 9:30 p.m. Thursday when he left his store, headed for home.

He said that he wasn't sure when Sue Barker, a retired teacher, was last seen alive. Sonny Davis, who attends church with the Barkers, said Sue had been at Rose Chapel United Methodist Church on Thursday, helping prepare for a yard sale.

Dowdle said early indications are that the Barkers were each shot once, probably with a handgun. An autopsy is scheduled today at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

"There's no signs of forced entry," Dowdle said. "There's nothing that jumped out at us that was missing; no signs of ransacking."

Authorities roped off the area around Barker's store. Deputies are seeking evidence that might be connected to the murder.

"It was his place of business, and we're preserving the scene in case there is evidence that might lead us to what happened," he said.

There had been reports that Barker had an altercation with someon at the store Thursday after some cigarettes were stolen.

Dowdle said detectives have not been able to confirm that.

"It wasn't reported to us," he said.

This was not the first time Barker had been the victim of violence. On Nov. 14, 2002, he was shot during a robbery at his store, and in March 2003, he was robbed at his home.

Mooe said the previous shooting was one of hte reasons he felt uneasy when Barker didn't arrive at work Friday morning.

"After he got shot, we all started keeping an eye on him," Mooe said.

He said that he had worked for Barker for about a year, managing a mobile-home park near the store.

"He was like a father to a lot of people," he said.

Lowell Harmon, who is married to Sue Barker's sister, Shirley, said he was privileged to have known the couple.

"We were truly blessed," he said Friday afternoon as he came by the store. "They will be missed."

Barbara Taylor, whose son Robert helped Barker in the store, said she spent a lot of time at the store, lending support to her son.

"They were good people," she said. "We loved Don and Sue."

Couples shot dead at home

By Carrie Sidener

Neighbors and friends gathered around the convenience store cordoned off with crime tape. They were sad, angry and fearful.

Barker's Grocery, a popular gathering place on U.S. Highway 21, never opened Friday morning because owner Don Barker and his wife, Sue, had been killed in their home.

"The impact is so far-reaching," said the Rev. H.L. Talbert, pastor of Rose Chapel United Methodist Church, which the Barkers attended.

"This morning, it was like ripples in a pond spreading outward. ... Don and Sue didn't just touch lives; they shaped them."

On Friday, Sonny and Sue Davis hovered around the store, where they had often spent time.

"That man would give you the shirt off his back," Sonny Davis said. "He would do anything in the world for you. ... Sue tried to tell him to close the store and sell it, but he said he can't."

Davis said Don Barker was robbed twice before and was shot during one of the robberies.

He said when the authorities caught one of hte perpetrators, Don Barker told him, "I hope that boys gets his life straightened out."

"Something needs to be done," Sonny Davis said, citing two other unsolved multiple homicides in the community. "Someone needs to get of their ... and do something."

Sue Davis owned the store when Don Barker started working there when he was about 13. She later sold the store to him.

"He was just like my son," she said.

"Don was the greatest man around," said Michael Carson, who worked at the store. "He was too good a guy. That might have been his downfall."

Sue Barker was a retired teacher at North Iredell Middle School. Principal Kelly Cooper said the staff was deeply saddened by the news of her death.

"She will be deeply missed by our entire faculty," Cooper said.

Teacher Barbara Hill described Sue Barker as a loving woman who cared about her students.

"She would always go the extra mile to help a student, whether it be personal or school related," Hill said.

Bill Hayes, who also helped out at the store, said Don would help anyone in need and often cashed checks for people, although sometimes those checks bounced.

"I have seen poeple pull up in here with no gas and no money, and he'd give them $5 of gas and send them on their way," he said.

Hayes said Don often wanted his friends to work with him in the store after he was shot in a robbery. Maybe that's what led to his death at home, Hayes speculated.

"I suspect that is why they went to his house, because there were always people around him here," he said.

County Commissioner Godfrey Williams, who frequented the store, said the couple will be greatly missed.

"Everyone knew Don and depended on him to be there," he said. "So many people depended on him for groceries and gas ... everyone in the neighborhood."

This is the second double homicide in Iredell County this year.

Talbert said Sue Barker had been organizing a church yard sale for Saturday. It will still be held - now in the couple's honor.

"Their ministry and their love lives on," Talbert said. "An assault can take their lives, but it can't take their love from the community."

Still no answers

By Donna Swicegood

Reponda Smith has one question for the person who shot her parents to death in the Union Grove home they shared for more than 40 years - why?

"Everybody loved mom and dad, except for whoever did this," she said.

Reponda's parents, James and Delet Powell, were found shot to death in their home one month ago today. An investigation by the Iredell County Sheriff's Office has yet to determine who is responsible for their deaths, and that fact still unnerves Reponda and her husband, Kenny.

"It's scary not knowing why it happened. You wonder if you're safe. You worry most of all if your children are safe," she said.

For the Smiths, the evening of Jan. 20 was the last day they can point to and remember having a sense of safety.

Reponda returned home from work that afternoon, and rushed to her parents' house to pick up her girls. Her mother baby-sat her 6-year-old and 2-year-old girls almost every day.

Her oldest daughter had to be at a meeting, and time was short, Reponda recalls. "Dad was outside," she said.

Her father came across the yard, and the 2-year-old ran across to say goodbye. "He laughed and picked her up and hugged her," Reponda said. He then hugged his older granddaughter before the girls went home.

"I told them I'll see you in the morning," Reponda said. She took the girls home and discovered they had left her toddler's favorite stuffed animal, Kitty-Cat, at her parents' house. Reponda didn't have time to go back at that point. She took the oldest child to the meeitng and, afterward, the girls at the Daisy meeting played while the moms talked.

That was unusual, Reponda said. "Usually, with it being a school night, when the meeting was over, we all left. For some reason, we just sat there and talked."

When she got home, it was time to get the girls to bed, and she decided retrieving the stuffed animal could wait until morning.

Reponda now believes something was keeping her away from the house.

The next morning, she went by her parents' house around 9:30 and couldn't get inside. After spotting blood inside the house, she called 911 and waiting in her van for sheriff's deputies to arrive.

"I was scared to death," she said. but she also felt a reassuring presence. "I felt their presence and I felt to peaceful. That feeling stayed with me until the police got there. When the first sheriff go there, it went away," she said.

Deputies entered the house and found the couple inside, both shot to death. An exact time of death has not been pinpointed, Kenny Smith said.

Reponda last saw her parents around 5 p.m. Thursday and they were found the next morning.

"It could have happened that night or early the next day," Kenny said.

While still reeling from the tragedy, they had to tell their older daughter that her beloved grandparents were gone.

"That's the hardest thing we've ever had to do," Kenny said. "That was tough."

The oldest girl was angry and asked her mother, "'Why did God make bad people?' I told her God didn't make bad people. People chose to be bad," Reponda said.

The Smiths said that their 2-year-old may not understand exactly what is going on, but she does know something is different.
"The first week or so, if she wasn't sleeping, she was crying. She was out of sorts. I feel like she knew something was wrong," Reponda said.
Her oldest daughter was also frightened, a feeling Kenny and Reponda share. "The first night I didn't sleep at all. I was scared to sleep. It was hard for me in the mornings. I'd wake up and it wasn't a dream and it was real," she said.
Kenny said he and his wife think often about what happened that day in the Powells' house.
"You think about them. What were they feeling. They had to be scared," he said.
"Especially my mom," Reponda said. "I know my dad was in the fight-to-survive mode."
The Smiths said they are trying to return a sense of normalcy to their lives - for their daughters' sake - and are trying not to convey their fears to them.
"The hardest part is that nothign is normal anymore, but we're trying to live a normal life," Kenny said.
Kenny said the sheriff's office has done its part to alleviate their fears as much as possible. He said deputies have dropped by and reassured their older daughter that they are there to protect her and her family.
"That really means a lot," Kenny said.
Since the murders, Reponda and Kenny have tried to focus on the joy her parents brought to their lives.
Looking at a photo of the Powell at their wedding aboard the Catawba Queen, they remembered the courage it dtook for Delet Powell to attend.
"She was scared of being on the water, and it took a lot to get her on the boat," Kenny said.
They smile when they talked about telling the Powells that their first child was on the way. "Her dad cried and her mom stuck a screwdriver through her hand," he said.
The girls would become the light of their granparents' lives, Kenny and Reponda said.
"Mom just loved taking care of the girls," Reponda said.
Her father, who worked on and restored old cars, called his granddaughters his little grease monkeys, Reponda said.
Restoring old cars was Powell's passion. "He'd go into that building (a garage behind his house) early in the morning and work until dark," Reponda said.
His love of old cars expanded his circle of friends considerably, she said. He went to antique car shows and parades all over the area.
That circle of friends paid tribute to Powell at his funeral by leading the procession from Statesville to Union Grove in antique cars. His brother, Billy Ray Powell, drove a teal 1940 Ford that Powell had painstakingly restored.
During the course of his life, Powell also owned and operated several stores, including one in Harmony for many years and, later, in Statesville.
It was at that store in Statesville where he tangled with an armed robber.
"Some guy came in to rob him, and I think dad went after him with a baseball bat and he (the robber) shot him in the hand," Reponda said.
She is convinced her father also put up a fight with the person who killed him. "Just from the way the house looks, I think he did," she said.
Her mother, Delet, worked outside the home until Reponda, her only child, was born. She then stayed at home to care for her daughter and, later, her granddaughters.
Kenny said that's one of the reasons the deaths have hit him and his wife so hard. "We not only lost her parents and their grandparents, but a babysitter and friends. They were so much more than ordinary grandparents."
Now they are searching their memories of that Thursday night and looking into their parents' lives, trying to find answers.
About a week before their deaths, James Powell went to Love Valley to buy some tin.
"Somebody was with him, but we don't know who it was," Reponda said.
That man was described as a younger person in the 20- to 30-year-old range. "It's a mystery to us," she said. Her father was 74. "We don't know who he would have been with in that age group," she said.
That person has not come forward, and many others who may have clues to the identity of the killer have remained silent, Kenny said. "Why people are not coming forward, we don't know," he said. "It makes it harder for the sheriff's office."
Rumors and gossip have also hurt the investigation, Kenny and Reponda said. And those rumors have also dealt more pain to the Smiths. "We've been very hurt by some of the gossip," she said.
Both Kenny and Reponda said not knowing who killed the Powells means a lack of trust in people they've known most of their lives.
"It makes you question people you know," Reponda said.
But in the midst of their distrust, they ahve found comfort in the support of neighbors, friends and co-workers. Kenny's co-workers have provided meals for hte family for the past couple of weeks.
Friends and neighbors drop by to offer their help and condolences.
"We've had so many phone calls and prayers. We've gotten prayers from all over the country," Kenny said.
The Smiths said they are now focusing on returning to normal as much as possible and keeping tabs on the investigation.
Lt. Stanley Watkins, who is leading the investigation for the sheriff's office, said James Powell's wide circle of friends and acquaintances has produced a lot of paperwork in the investigation.
"He knew a lot of people and it's taking a lot of legwork," he said.
Watkins estimated that the sheriff's office has conducted more than 100 interviews in the past month.
Detectives are also awaiting results from evidence sent to laboratories for testing.
Watkins has also distributed flyers with the Powells' pictures and they are hanging in windows across the county.
"We're still hard at it," Watkins said. "We're hoping we'll get a resolution before too much longer.
Reponda hopes for the same thing.
"Whoever did this brought a lot of heartache and misery," she said. But "I guarantee we'll come out on top. God takes care of those that love him, and he'll take care of whoever did this for a while. Someday I'll see mom and dad again, but hopefully that person never will."
"He won't," Kenny added.

Deputies still searching for clues

By Donna Swicegood

Still searching for clues in the deaths of an elderly Union Grove couple, deputies set up a roadblock on N.C. 901 on Thursday night to ask motorists if they remember anything about the previous Thursday that might be relevant.
"We're looking for anybody that might have seen anything that night or Friday morning, no matter how unimportant it might seem," said Lt. Stanley Watkins of the sheriff's office. "It might be important to us."
Earlier this week, Watkins said the sheriff's office is seeking information about a beige mid- to late-1980s model Dodge pickup seen at the home on Friday morning. He stressed that the person connected with this vehicle is not a suspect.
"We just want to see if they got an answer at the door and if they talked with anyone," he said.

Autopsy: Couple was shot

By Donna Swicegood

A Union Grove couple found slain in their home Friday morning died of gunshot wounds, authorities said.

Autopsies conducted Saturday morning at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem concluded that James Powell, 75, and his wife, Delet Reid Powell, 71, were shot to death, said Lt. Stanley Watkins of the Iredell County Sheriff's Office.

Watkins said there were weapons in the house but "there were none we believe were used in the crime."

The couple was found around 9:30 a.m. Friday by their daughter, who had stopped by to check on them.

The Powells were found in the kichen of the brick home on West Memorial Highway in Union Grove.

Powell, who owned and operated stores in various parts of Iredell County, liked to restore old cars, particularly 1940s-era Fords.

Friends of the couple described the Powells as nice people who were willing to help out anyone who needed it.

Sheriff Phil Redmond was one of those who knew the couple personally and he said he was shocked by their deaths. "I've never known them to have any problems with anybody," he said Friday.

Watkins said the investigation is still in its early stages. "We're still going out and doing interviews with folks that knew them," he said Saturday afternoon.

The couple was last seen alive around 5 p.m. Thursday by a family member, and authorities are looking for anyone who may have seen anything unusual in the neighborhood between Thursday night and Friday morning when the bodies were discovered.

Watkins said anyone with information concerning the Powells can call the sheriff's office at (704) 878-3180.

Couple found dead

By Donna Swicegood

Neighbors in Union Grove were stunned Friday morning when a local couple was found dead in their home on West Memorial Highway.
James Powell, 73, and his wife, Ruth Delet, 62, were found inside their home by their daughter at about 9:30 a.m. Friday.
The Iredell County Sheriff's Office is conducting an investigation into the deaths, and released few details Friday night.
"We're looking at it as a death investigation," said Lt. Stanley Watkins.
Watkins said authorities are not sure how the couple died, and are awaiting the results of an autopsy, which is scheduled for this morning.
The autopsies will be conducted at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
The couple was found insdie the kitchen of the brick house, which sits across the road from Myrtle Beach Golf in Union Grove.
As sheriff's deputies arrived Friday morning and crime scene tape was tied around the exterior of the house, residents stopped to see what had happened.
Clifton benge, who is retired from the Statesville Fire Department, said he was stunned by the deaths.
"It's unbelievable to think that something happened to both of them. They're the kind of people you thought would be around forever," he said.
Benge said he knew the Powells well, dropping by frequently to talk with James, who restored cars.
Benge last spoke to the Powells earlier this week when he drove by and saw James working on a truck body.
"We talked for about five or 10 minutes," he said.
Benge described Powell as a "super nice guy." He'd do anything for you. He was a nice all-around guy."
He said Delet was more of a homebody than her husband. "She was a good person," he said.