Although the Sampson County medical examiner has said a man found lying dead in a ditch on Brewer Road last week was shot to death, officials at the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office aren’t so fast to call the shooting a homicide.
“There is no new update on the ‘deceased body’ found last Thursday morning,” said Cpl. Marcus Smith Tuesday. “It is still under investigation.”
Smith said investigators weren’t prepared yet to call it a murder although officials have admitted there were obvious signs of foul play.
Late last week, investigators identified the victim as 25-year-old Kim Douglass McKoy Jr. of Rose Hill after a work crew mowing in the area of Brewer Road came upon the body.
Early reports were that McKoy was shot at least four times, but on Tuesday morning, Sampson County Medical Examiner Dr. F. Carl Barr confirmed that the victim had been shot seven times.
“There were seven entrances,” Dr. Barr acknowledged. “Two look like they were defensive wounds in his arms. I found only five bullets though.”
Dr. Barr explained that one of the bullets was what he described as a “dead end,” or one that could not be found, and the other may have fallen out (of the body) at the scene.
“He was hit once in the face and twice in the neck … twice in the chest, once in the middle back and once in the lower back. I would say it looked to be from a .380-caliber weapon.”
Last Thursday morning around 9:15 a.m. McKoy’s body was found by a N.C. Department of Transportation work crew mowing grass near the dead end at Brewer Road, just north of Lake Artesia Road and near Faison.
Because of the condition of McKoy’s body, Dr. Barr estimated that the time of death was around or just after midnight Thursday morning.
“I didn’t find anything to suggest there was a physical confrontation,” Dr. Barr continued. “And there was no characteristics that he was shot at close range. To me, from the angle of the shots, it looks like he was on the ground, maybe he was running or fell, I don’t know … But the one shot to the chest is what looks to be the shot that killed him. He had massive amounts of hemorrhaging in his chest.”
Members of the county’s Special Investigations Division, the Criminal Investigations Division and agents from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) are still searching information on what might have happened to McKoy.
McKoy will be laid to rest Thursday.
If you have any information on this case, you are asked to call the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office at 910-592-4141.
To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or email to sisports@heartlandpublications.com.
Oh, I do agree with you on the subjects you mentioned, but this little gem was the oddity of the day when it was printed.
Hmm, I know I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree, BUT two gun shot wounds to the back kinda rules out suicide. With Kim's extensive criminal record and the body found dumped in the ditch near a known drug area,Lake Amnesia, it's highly suspect that Mr. McKoy's demise could have, maybe, probably been caused by homicide, whether murder or manslaughter. Just saying....