Friday, March 4, 2011

Rowan, NC: Authorities confirm murder-suicide in eastern Rowan

Published Wednesday, March 02, 2011 11:00 PM

Authorities confirmed today that an incident that claimed two men’s lives in eastern Rowan County was a murder-suicide that resulted from an ongoing “domestic related situation.”
Lester Clay Efird shot and killed Bruce Yount Stewart Jr., then took his own life with a 12 guage shotgun at 1174 Trexler Road, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

Deputies were called to the residence around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and found the two men dead in the yard.

“One of the subjects was identified as 45-year-old Bruce Stewart Jr. Stewart was discovered unarmed and it was determined that he had been shot possibly twice, with ‘buckshot,’ from a range of about 30 feet,” the press release said.

Stewart's wounds were in the back and the shoulder.

A few yards away, deputies discovered 63-year-old Efird dressed in camouflage clothing with a 12-gauge shotgun and a contact shotgun wound to the front of the head.

Based on evidence recovered from witness statements, the crime scene and evidence recovered from Efird's 7308 Stokes Ferry Road home, investigators determined Efird went to Stewart's home, confronted him, and shot Stewart twice.

Efird then used the same weapon and took his own life, the Sheriff’s Office said.

During the course of the investigation, authorities determined Efird and Stewart “had been involved in a domestic related situation” since early January, the press release said.

A neighbor told a Post reporter Wednesday that Efird’s estranged wife had been dating Stewart.

No comments: