NC Wanted: Search continues for missing veteran from Spring Lake

Angel Delacruz embodied the American spirit—a veteran, a father, a patriot.

His family says he was also a giving man, which may have cost him his life.

Delacruz was a veteran of two foreign wars. His death in January of 2011 happened on friendly soil—his hometown of Spring Lake.

“If he had $40 in his wallet and if somebody needed it,” Evelyn Alicea said. “That’s just the way he was.”

The 83-year-old was found dead in his bedroom on Rose Street. He'd been suffocated and few hundred dollars in cash was missing from the home.

“I believe what killed him was his kindness,” Juan De La Cruz said. “My dad was a good man. You know, if you go knocking on his door and needed something, he’d help you out.”

The Puerto Rican native was drafted into the Korean War and served two tours in Vietnam. Three children followed him into the military. A daughter was killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

“When my sister died on 9/11, he wanted to go,” Alicea said. “He said, ‘I’m going to go,’ and that he was going to talk to somebody.”

His family hopes the community can now give back to him with information about his death.

Call the toll-free hotline at 1-866-43-wanted with any information about the unsolved murder of Delacruz.