Man jailed Saturday morning in Tuesday shooting deaths of mother and son in Hope Mills

F.T. Norton, The Fayetteville Observer
·2 min read
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An arrest was made early Saturday in a double homicide in Hope Mills from earlier this week.
An arrest was made early Saturday in a double homicide in Hope Mills from earlier this week.

HOPE MILLS — A 69-year-old man was arrested early Saturday in the Tuesday shooting deaths of a mother and son in Hope Mills.

Rodney William McCrary is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and concealing or failure to report a death in the slayings of Julie Camacho Smith, 48, and her son Desmond Miles Brewington, 25.

The mother and son were found dead of apparent gunshot wounds in the grass behind their apartment building in the 6200 block of Hackberry Drive at about 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Hope Mills Police Chief Stephen Dollinger said the two were not directly behind their apartment but close by. The units have both front and back doors and share a common backyard. The chief said the exact causes of death are pending the outcome of autopsies.

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McCrary was known to the victims but the extent of the relationship was not immediately clear, Dollinger said. The accused killer also lives in the Village Green Apartments, a development of townhome-like units off Rockfish Road.

He was arrested about 1:15 a.m. Saturday by detectives with the Hope Mills Police Department and agents with the State Bureau of Investigation.

A motive in the killings was not immediately known, Dollinger said.

Identifying McCrary as the suspect took “hours and hours of detectives and investigators canvassing the area, knocking on doors and looking at video surveillance tapes throughout the area both privately owed and commercially owned," The chief said.

“The Hope Mills police department and investigators have been working around the clock on this and if it wasn't for their efforts and all of their hard work ... quite possibly, this wouldn't have been resolved as quickly as it had been."

McCrary was being held Saturday in the Cumberland County jail without bail.

Military & crime editor F.T. Norton can be reached at fnorton@fayobserver.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Man arrested in Tuesday slayings of mother, son in Hope Mills