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.