Police: Fayetteville woman stabbed to death by husband who died in a crash minutes later
A Fayetteville woman was stabbed to death in her home on Monday night, and police believe her husband was the murderer.
Police also said that her husband died in a nearby crash around 30 minutes after her stabbing.
Chachal Kershaw said his neighbor Tanisha Raeford, 47, ran over to his home asking him to call 911 after she had been stabbed. She told Kershaw that her husband, John Douglas, 53, had stabbed her and was planning on killing himself.
Raeford bled to death on Kershaw's kitchen floor, he said. She used her last breath to beg Kershaw to call her grandmother, he said.
Officers with the Fayetteville Police Department responded to Kershaw's home on Shiloh Court near Winnabow Drive around 8:30 p.m. Police said Raeford was dead before they arrived.
"She was a very beautiful young lady, very friendly. Her and her husband were very nice," said neighbor Diann Dukes.
Dukes said that Raeford and her husband had recently renovated their home and that Raeford owned a home decor business.
"It was always a peaceful atmosphere," Dukes said, adding that she never heard the couple argue.
The couple had just returned from a fishing trip, Kershaw said.
Kershaw said that Douglas was known for owning lots of hunting gear, including guns, and that Raeford told him her husband threatened her with those guns in her final hours.
Fayetteville police responding to the call about the stabbing saw someone leaving the scene in a truck. Police were searching for that truck at around 9 p.m., and found it badly mangled in a crash near A.B. Carter and John B. Carter Roads in Cumberland County.
Authorities found Douglas dead inside the crashed truck. Pictures from the scene show the truck crashed into at least one parked logging truck.
Police said that they were not chasing Douglas at the time of the crash. Neighbors believe Douglas crashed into the logging truck intentionally.
Authorities initially told WRAL News that Raeford and Douglas were boyfriend and girlfriend but clarified that they were married.
