The Orange County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina has arrested a suspect for the shooting deaths of two teens who were previously reported missing.
Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood announced that a 17-year old was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, a Class A felony, for the deaths of Devin Clark, 18, and Lyric Woods, 14.
“Through the hard work of my investigators, along with the assistance of personnel from many other law enforcement agencies, we have identified a suspect in this case,” Blackwood said in a release. “We will now work with local, state, and federal authorities to apprehend and present the suspect to the court system.”
The suspect, who remains unidentified, will not be charged as an adult due to state law that went into effect on December 1, 2019. The law states that 16 and 17-year old individuals who commit crimes in North Carolina are no longer charged automatically in the adult criminal justice system.
Instead, the case will be transferred from a district court to a superior court.
Blackwood went on to thank the victims’ families, “Thank you for trusting us and the investigative process during this excruciatingly painful time. I hope the apprehension of this subject will bring them some comfort as they mourn their loved ones.”
Blackwood’s announcement came a few hours after local authorities recovered the bodies of Woods and Clark, who were found shot to death along a hiking trail in Orange County over the weekend.
Their bodies were found Sunday afternoon by men riding ATVs in the area.
“Family members reported Lyric missing Saturday afternoon to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office,” a previous statement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office reads. “Devin Clark’s family contacted the Mebane Police Department on Sunday with concerns about his whereabouts.”
Lyric was a ninth grader at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough and Devin was a senior at Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane.
The teens were described as acquaintances.
On Monday, the families of both victims visited the site where their bodies were found dead.
Lyric’s parents left flowers and a cross while Devin’s mother, Tiffany Concepcion said, “I need to know why my son was killed. He never hurt anybody, so for him to get done like this is…I have to have answers. I want to get justice and I don’t care where I have to go, what I have to do, who I’ve got to talk to, I’m going to keep going and keep doing it.”
A GoFundMe page seeking donations for Devin’s funeral described the teen as a student-athlete who “loved his family and friends.”
The investigation is ongoing and those with any information are encouraged to call Investigator Keith Goodwin at (919) 245-2918.
He was 18 years old and she was 16 years old but they were “acquaintances”. Yeah, Cmon… And who let’s their 16 year old daughter run around with a legal adult by themselves, unsupervised in the first place? Lack of parental supervision.
However, their cold murders is still very unfortunate and sad.
She was 14