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Fayetteville Police Still Tight-Lipped About Double Homicide

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FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Fayetteville police are making only the first page of a police report about a double homicide public, even though they have arrested a suspect in connection with the case.

Investigators believe Michael McDonald, 18, of Hope Mills, killed Monica Gacutan and her daughter, Andrea Scott. Gacutan, 37, and Scott, 17, were found dead inside their home in a gated community on June 10.

Police have neither said how the two women died nor offered a motive for the slayings. Releasing that kind of information could hurt the case, authorities said.

"We don't want to tamper any possible witnesses or give someone information that might be key in possible interviews that our investigators do," said Fayetteville Police Department spokeswoman Jamie Smith.

But people who know the suspect and victims, such as Darius Bailey, said they would like answers. Bailey went to school with both Scott and McDonald, and said he even dated Scott.

"We want to know if there's more than one person (connected to the slayings)," he said. "We want to know if, we want to know where she was found in the house. We want to know if they were found together in the house. We want to know how that person got into the house."

Scott, who friends said had lived overseas, recently moved to Fayetteville, where she attended Jack Britt High School. They said she started a step team at the school and that she was popular among the students.

Friends will hold a memorial service for her at 4 p.m. Monday at the high school.

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