Fayetteville mother seeks closure, peace 3 years after son died in her arms from shooting

Mother's day is Sunday. It's a painful reminder for a Fayetteville mother who lost her son three years ago during a deadly home invasion.

Stephanie Hart was there when her son, Kara Denzel Dixon, was shot to death.

Hart still has pain in her heart from the murder that took place on Teal Court in 2020. Now she's searching for closure.

Hart said the 23-year-old Dixon was a young father whose then-6-year-old son is now 8.

"I tell him Denzel is in heaven," Hart said. "He's with our father."

But that's the end of the story. In the beginning, it was Sunday, July 12, 2020. Hart was inside her son's apartment on Teal Court in Fayetteville when she answered a knock at the door around five that afternoon.

"And when I opened the door," Hart said. "They rushed in (and) shooting started inside the home. It was just a lot."

Hart says she was attacked and her son helped fight off her attacker. She said he was followed into a back room and shot. She tried to perform CPR to save her son's life.

"By the time EMS entered the room ... my son had died in my arms," Hart said.

Hart said she not heard anything recently about the investigation into her son's death. So WRAL News reached out to Fayetteville police. They said this is a cold case, but an ongoing investigation.

While police continue their search for a suspect, a mother clings to her son's memory just days before Mother's Day.

"He's always been that guy that treated everybody with respect," Hart said. "People like him."

At this point, no charges have been filed. Fayetteville police are asking anyone who knows anything about what happened to give them a call 910-433-1529.