Inset left: Tara Jackson (Catawba County Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Cecil Ray Traylor Jr. (Catawba County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home in Caldwell County, North Carolina, where law enforcement was searching for clues on David Mize’s disappearance (WBTV/YouTube).
A man and woman in North Carolina are accused of murdering a Vietnam War veteran, hiding his body, and then returning to his home to steal items from him.
Tara Jackson and Cecil Ray Traylor Jr., both 35, have been charged with murder in the death of 75-year-old David Mize, the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office announced this week.
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Deputies were reportedly asked to do a welfare check at Mize’s home on Swinging Bridge Road on Tuesday. When they got there, they did not see anyone — but they did “discover signs of foul play.”
An investigation was launched, leading investigators to another location in Catawba County — Valley Hills Mall. Officials believe the couple killed Mize at his home before placing his body in the trunk of his car and then leaving it at the mall, Charlotte-based ABC affiliate WSOC reported.
The car was reportedly later found in a tow lot in Caldwell County, Catawba County’s northwest neighbor.
Investigators say the pair went back to Mize’s home after the murder in order to steal from him. They were ultimately arrested, with WSOC capturing the moment Jackson was put in handcuffs.
“Did you know David Mize?” a reporter asks her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she responds.
The reporter then asks, “Were you involved in the murder?”
“No,” Jackson snaps, later adding, “I have a 7-week-old baby I’m trying to get back home to.”
Though Jackson and Traylor have been charged, the investigation was still ongoing as of Wednesday, authorities stressed. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office are helping the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office determine exactly what took place.
Mize’s friend, Sherrill Baxter, said his death “was a big loss for all of us, for anyone who really knew who he was. … Because people who actually knew him, he was a solid individual. He really was.”
Baxter remembered him as a decorated Vietnam War veteran and said that “everything he did was somewhat militarily involved,” per local CBS affiliate WBTV. “There’s times he had to come get me if I broke down or something. I’d call him up and he’d be right there.”
Catawba County is located about an hour north of Charlotte, North Carolina.
