Mother: Slain Sampson County Woman Was Shot

A 37-year-old woman who was found dead late Thursday on the back steps of her Sampson County house recently lost her fiance in a traffic wreck.

Posted 5:32 p.m. Dec 28, 2007 — Updated 3:24 a.m. Dec 29, 2007

CLINTON, N.C. — A 37-year-old woman who was found dead late Thursday on the back steps of her Sampson County house recently lost her fiance in a traffic wreck.

Beverly M. Honeycutt was shot in the face and left to die outside her home at 214 Mathis Road, a quiet, two-lane country road near Clinton, said her mother, Susie Stone.

"There is no way to describe what it did to me when I saw her lying there," Stone said. "I really don't know what happened."

Honeycutt was visiting her mother Thursday night and headed home shortly after 8 p.m., Stone said. A friend who was supposed to accompany Honeycutt to small-claims court Friday morning went to check on her about three hours later when she didn't answer the phone.

"He said, 'Miss Susie, I'm in her yard and her car door is open, and she's lying on the door steps and she's all bloody,'" Stone said. "He went all to pieces."

Honeycutt's fiance, a trucker, was killed in a wreck about three weeks before Christmas. A gold chain he was wearing when he died lay on the brick steps next to her body.

Sampson County Sheriff's Office investigators wouldn't confirm that Honeycutt was shot, saying only that there was obvious trauma to her head.

The body has been sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.

Investigators said there was no sign Honeycutt had been robbed.

They interviewed neighbors Friday to see if they saw or heard anything Thursday night. They said they were following some leads, but they haven't identified a motive for the murder or any suspects in the case.

“We are at a loss for a motive at this point in time,” said Capt. Eric Pope of the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office. “We’re following up on several leads that are coming in from people in the community.”

Stone said her daughter was grieving over the loss of her fiance. Now, she and her grandchildren, 10-year-old Spencer and 2½-year-old Chandlyn, are grieving, she said.

"She was a wonderful woman. She had a heart of gold," Stone said. "I hope it's eating (the killer) up right now because you need to think of these two children that's left without their mother."

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Sampson County Sheriff's Office at 910-592-4141.

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