Reward offered in lawn mower death

Northampton County investigators are hoping a reward will help generate leads in the case of a man who died after being attacked while riding his lawn mower.

Thomas Charles Watson, 58, of Garysburg, died Jan. 24, at Pitt Memorial Hospital, after he was attacked.

Watson, whom friends called "Kissie," was well-known in the small rural town of approximately 1,100 for getting around on his lawn mower and for cutting lawns, sometimes for free.

He was on his way home on the evening of January 23, when, police believe, two men attacked him on Apple Street, breaking his back and neck.

The state is offering a reward of up to $5,000 leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.

"I believe there's a lot of people out there that know what's going on, what happened," Watson's daughter, Carita Watson, said Friday.