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Murder Victim’s Vehicle Found in Watauga

By Jesse Wood

At the behest of the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office, deputies with the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office located a stolen vehicle in Foscoe over the weekend that is related to a murder investigation in Wilkes County.

On Thursday afternoon, law enforcement and medics in Wilkes County responded to a call of a deceased white male at 1365 Roaring Gap Road in Thurmond.

After an initial investigation, Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy David Carson announced that the case was being treated as a homicide. On Tuesday, he wouldn’t identify the victim or comment on the cause of death until an autopsy comes back.

“We are 99 percent sure of who it is, but we are waiting on fingerprint[s] … to come back to make a positive ID,” Carson told High Country Press on Tuesday.

The Wilkes Journal-Patriot reported that the deceased resided at the residence, which Todd and Dawn Beyer own, according to tax records.

“Tax records listed their address as 181 Park Ave., Watertown, N.Y., and show they bought the mobile home and 5½ acres on Roaring Gap Road in April 2015,” the Wilkesboro paper reported. “A resident of the area around the mobile home on Saturday said Beyer and his wife had New York license plates on their vehicles when they moved into the mobile home last spring …”

The victim’s vehicle was reportedly found at an unspecified block on Church Road. Carson confirmed the victim’s vehicle was found in Watauga County, however, he said, “We don’t think it had anything do with the case.”

“We don’t believe it was involved,” Carson said.

Carson mentioned that the investigation is still ongoing and that detectives are currently conducting interviews and trying to determine what the victim was up to during the last few days of his life.

“At this point, there isn’t a whole lot to tell,” Carson said.

The State Bureau of Investigation is assisting in the investigation.