An elderly couple has been found dead after a father and son allegedly broke into their home in Oak Hill, North Carolina, set the house on fire, and abducted them. Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife Dora, 62, were taken from their home at 7am on New Year's Day by two men who also stole their SUV.
The couple's bodies were discovered around 4pm in Lewisburg, West Virginia, following a shootout between police and the suspects. Officers had pulled over a stolen white Chevrolet SUV driven by 21-year-old Eric Alexander Campbell. During the stop, his father, 54-year-old Edward Campbell, allegedly pulled alongside in a red SUV and opened fire on the officers.
The father fled but was captured 90 minutes later in the woods. A search of his truck revealed the two bodies under a mattress on the flatbed. Two police officers were shot and hospitalised but are expected to recover. Sheriff Brindell Wilkins of Granville County, North Carolina, said he believed the couple were killed at their home and their bodies loaded into the truck before the suspects fled more than 200 miles into West Virginia.
The sheriff stated that the motive was likely robbery and that the couple were randomly targeted. The Faulkners' pastor, Johnny Richard of Mountain's Creek Baptist Church in Oxford, described them as 'quiet, solid people' who were faithful in church attendance and well-loved. Jerome Faulkner was a retired fire chief with the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department.
