Log in to WRAL.com with one click using your favorite social network:
OR
Log in using your WRAL.com account:



Wrong email/password combination.

Forgot password?

Register with WRAL.com using your favorite social network:
OR
Register for a WRAL.com account using our web form.

Login Options

4:26 p.m. • 2-12-12

Weather Forecast for Raleigh

  • Mon: Partly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 50° F
  • Tue: Rain.
    • Hi: 53° F
  • Wed: Partly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 57° F

Other Locations

> 7 Day Forecast

Doppler Image

Marketplace Links

Social Links

Main Menu

Elderly Robbery Victim Tells Her Story of Living With Fear


e-mail print friendly
Katherleen Smith
Katherleen Smith

An elderly Cumberland County woman says she is living in fear after three teens robbed and threatened to kill her.

Sheriff's deputies arrested one of the teens last week, but they are still looking for two others.

Katherleen Smith, 81, didn't want to show her face during a television interview Tuesday with WRAL.

Dustin Shane Mantz, 17, and two others are accused of forcing their way into Smith's home on Jan. 18.

Smith, who lived alone at her Gainey Road home, was unharmed, but she was very scared.

She said she knew Mantz and that he was her grandson's friend.

"He always said, 'please' and 'thank you,'” she said. Smith even took Mantz to her church once and fed him dinner, she said.

Then on Jan. 18, Smith said, Mantz showed up on her front steps with two other teens and said he had a gun.

"'And if you don't open the door, we're gonna shoot you,'" Smith recalled his words to her. "'And we're gonna bust your door open, and if we have to, we're gonna shoot you.'”

"About that time, they grabbed the screen door and tore it open,” she said.

Mantz demanded the keys to her 1996 Nissan pickup truck, Smith said. The three teens also went to her bedroom, ransacked it and stole jewelry, along with $60, she said.

Smith was "somebody who was good to Dustin, good to everybody. To think they would do that. It just tore my heart out,” she said.

Since then, she said she has felt afraid in her home.

"It takes my freedom away from me,” she said.

Mantz, of 162 Sally Hill Circle, was arrested Friday in a wooded area off Knapdale and McIver roads in Parkton. He was being held Tuesday in the Cumberland County Jail.

Investigators said that in addition to stealing Smith's pickup, he is accused of taking two county-owned vans from a group home.

Monday, authorities charged him with first-degree burglary, larceny of a motor vehicle, robbery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a deadly weapon.

Smith's daughter has been staying with her at night since the robbery. Smith has lived in the Grays Creek area for nearly 39 years.

She said she hopes someday to be able to forgive the teens.

"I've been talking to God about that. I think I would forgive them, but I will never forget what they did to me,” she said.

Smith's truck is still missing. Investigators have not released descriptions of the other two suspects because they are juveniles.

RELATED TOPICS: Cumberland County

e-mail print friendly

3 Comments


WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

View Comments 3 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments
absolutely, release their identity and photo. If law enforcement is STILL looking for the other two, maybe the public could help- if we knew what to look for! this is a bunch of animals- no, they are not as good as animals, they are no better than dirt and I hope all three of them are put under the jail. this makes me irrate. sorry good for nothing tra** !

I agree with you murph! They should have to release the names of the juveniles...and they should also be tried as adults. If you are old enough to do the crime, you are old enough to do the time.

They need to release the names and pictures of the 2 other suspects. Juveniles or not, they are a threat to society. If they are old enough to break into someone's home with guns while they are home then they are old enough to go to prison. People shouldn't have to live in fear inside their own home.

View Comments 3 COMMENTS
Report It

Multimedia

Click Here