Background: News footage of the Chavis home, where the couple was found dead on Monday (WECT). Inset: Joann Chavis and Ted Chavis (Facebook).
A North Carolina couple was killed by their own foster child, who took his own life after committing the crime, police said.
According to the Hoke County Sheriff”s Office, 46-year-old Joann Chavis and her husband, 53-year-old Ted Chavis, were found stabbed to death in their home in Raeford on Monday. The couple’s 17-year-old foster child, who was only identified as D.P., was determined to be the main suspect in the double homicide.
After naming their suspect, authorities were led to the Boys & Girls Homes building in Lake Waccamaw, around 80 miles southeast of Raeford, where they found D.P.’s car. “When approached by officers,” Hoke County authorities said, “D.P. committed suicide from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
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Local NBC affiliate WECT reported that a spokesperson from Boys & Girls Homes said that the Chavises were not foster parents through that organization. The spokesperson added that they would not comment on “any juvenile who may or may not have been in our programs of care.”
After an investigation that spanned multiple counties, police did not provide a possible motive for the killings or why the victims’ foster son went to Boys & Girls Homes.
Sheriff’s deputies first responded to the Chavis home on a call for a cardiac arrest. Police said evidence at the scene led them to identify the couple’s foster son as the suspect, but specifics were not provided. The Hoke County Sheriff’s Office stated that the investigation is ongoing and is being led by the State Bureau of Investigation.
