Fayetteville murder-suicide rate appears to have increased in 2023

The greater Fayetteville area experienced at least five murder-suicides in 2023, which appears to be an increase over prior years.

While murders and suicides are tracked separately by law enforcement, one organization says it’s harder to track when the two are related.

According to the national nonprofit Violence Policy Center, “comprehensive, up-to-date information specific to murder-suicides in the United States is not readily available, which has resulted in the organization collecting and analyzing news reports of murder-suicides since 2002."

The Fayetteville Police Department at times issues news releases stating whether authorities believe a killing was the result of a murder-suicide, but the department’s quarterly and annual crime data only lists individual categories for homicide and suicide and has no separate category for murder-suicides.

"Homicides and suicides are tracked in separate categories," police spokeswoman officer Alexandria Pecia said in a statement Thursday.

Here’s a look at Fayetteville’s known murder-suicides for 2020-2023.

2023

All of Fayetteville’s murder-suicides in 2023 appear to be cases of domestic violence, with men shooting female partners before killing themselves.

The oldest victim was 82 and the youngest was 18.

Reported incidents include:

• Gregg Melvin, 73, and Roslyn Mazzilli, 82, found dead Sept. 16 in the home they shared in the 1600 block of Kara Court.

In a Sept. 26 news release, authorities said Melvin was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound after calling 911 on Sept. 16.  Melvin was pronounced dead at the hospital.

A preliminary autopsy determined Mazzilli died of a gunshot wound and had been dead "days prior to the 911 call," the release stated.

• Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jessica Moore, 35, was found dead Sept. 14 in her home on Kentyre Drive.

Tito Matos of Fayetteville, who was in a "domestic relationship" with Moore, is believed to have killed her, police said.

Forty minutes after the discovery of Moore's body, Matos shot and killed himself during a traffic stop in Southern Pines, about 35 miles from Kentyre Drive,

Moore was an air traffic and airspace management technician for the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division and had been at Fort Liberty since February 2020.

• Sandra Robinson, 58, and her husband, Lewis Robinson, 50, were found dead of gunshot wounds on June 18 in their Torbay Drive home. A police official said the deaths appeared to be a murder-suicide.

• Tatiana Haywood, 18, was fatally shot May 24 at her home in the 3700 block of Carlos Avenue, according to a news release. The shooter, Nasir Scott, 18, died at the hospital of a self-inflicted gunshot. The young couple had previously been in a relationship.

• Fayetteville Police Officer Domingo Tavarez-Rodriguez, 53, and his wife, Yenitza Arroyo-Tavarez, 44, were found dead April 29 in their home in the 1300 block of Vandenberg Drive by Tavarez-Rodriguez’s supervisors after he failed to report to work. The State Bureau of Investigation, which handled the investigation, said Tavarez-Rodriguez died of a single gunshot and his wife died of multiple gunshots. The preliminary autopsy ruled the deaths were murder-suicide, an SBI release stated.

2022

There were at least four murder-suicides in 2022, with three of the four reported by authorities.

The deaths included a fatal stabbing, shootings and fire.

All of the women were killed by men.

They included:

• Tanisha Donnette Raeford, 47, who was stabbed to death Aug. 22, 2022, by her husband, John Lee Douglas, 53. Shortly after the killing, Douglas drove his vehicle into two parked semi-trucks in the area of AB Carter and John B. Carter roads in Cumberland County and died in the fiery wreckage, police said.

• Heather Lalla Melvin, 54, was fatally shot July 14 by her husband in a murder-suicide at the couple's Berkshire Road home.

According to an autopsy report, officers found Melvin dead on the floor of her home after she failed to report to work. The autopsy report stated that Melvin had "traumatic injuries" to her head and face and a penetrating wound to her lower body.

Law enforcement also found Melvin's husband in the living room with traumatic injuries to his head and a handgun by his right foot, the medical examiner's report stated.

Pecia said 55-year-old John Melvin was the suspect.

• Nakea Brooks, 27, and Marchellous Braddy, 33, of Raeford, were fatally shot May 16 in the 5700 block of Aftonshire Drive. Rhaim Mosies Santiago, 29, was sought in their deaths but killed himself in Smithfield as law enforcement closed in, officials said.

• Norelly Lockamy, 40, died following a fire set by her ex-boyfriend at her Lyon Road home July 17, according to a medical examiner's report.

The medical examiner's report states that the police report notes that Lockamy ran to her neighbor's house with severe burns and was "only able to say 'he burned me.'"

"Officers indicated that they suspect her significant other, who the decedent had a restraining order against, arrived at her residence and pour(ed) gasoline on her and set her on fire," the autopsy report stated.

The autopsy report stated that Lockamy's significant other was also burned and that law enforcement suspected "foul play."

Pecia said 41-year-old Herbert Wilson, who was in a domestic relationship with Lockamy was the suspect and also died in the fire.

2021

Authorities reported at least one murder-suicide in 2021, which was a shooting and involved a woman killed by her boyfriend.

• Xamegga Whitfield, 25, was shot Oct. 21, 2021, by her boyfriend Michael Culpepper, 20, in the road outside a Miller Avenue apartment.

As the first officer arrived on the scene, Culpepper, who was on his knees in the road holding a handgun, shot himself, police said.

Whitfield was pronounced dead at the scene, and Culpepper succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, a news release stated.

2020

Authorities reported at least one murder-suicide in 2020, which involved a Fort Liberty soldier killing his pregnant wife days before Christmas.

• Sarah Lewis, 34, planned to celebrate the birth of her baby who was due on Christmas Day in 2020. But on Dec. 20, 2021, Lewis was shot and killed in what police said was a murder-suicide in the 900 block of Willow Street.

The expectant mother and baby died at a hospital, while her husband Staff Sgt. Keith Lewis, 31, died at the scene from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Murders and suicides but no murder-suicides

The Violence Policy Center's analysis of murder-suicides is published in a series of studies, called "American Roulette: Murder-Suicide in the United States." The latest study was released in October.  

According to data from the study, murder-suicides are almost always committed by a man with a gun.

According to the analysis, "medical studies estimate that between 1,000 and 1,500 deaths per year in the United States are the result of murder-suicide."

The Violence Policy Center analyzed data from Jan. 1-June 30, 2021, finding there were 258 murder-suicide events resulting in 588 murder-suicide deaths, of which 258 were suicides and 330 were homicides.

A study released in July 2020 found 280 murder-suicide events during the first six months of 2019, which resulted in 620 deaths, including 280 suicides and 340 homicides.

The October report states that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s surveillance system for violent deaths, the National Violent Death Reporting System, includes comprehensive information about homicides and suicides among other types of deaths, but information about murder-suicides is not publicly available.

North Carolina’s Violent Death Reporting System also provides data on violent deaths from each county in the state from 2004 to 2020.

The system’s latest analysis of 2020 deaths released in May found that statewide there were 1,436 homicides and 867 suicides.

In Cumberland County, there were 56 suicides and 40 homicides.

The data does not specify whether any of the homicide and suicide deaths were related and noted that Cumberland County was one of the top 20 counties in the state for homicides per 100,000 residents in 2020, with Guilford County having the most at 76.

There were 1,436 suicides statewide in 2020.

Do you know of a recent murder-suicide case that wasn't included in this report? Email news@fayobserver.com. Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-2528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: What we know about Fayetteville's 2023 murder-suicides