Still no arrests, but warrants reveal more details on Moore County power grid attacks

Moore County Sheriff’s investigators received a tip of a person of interest within two days of the Dec. 3, 2022 power substation attacks, according to search warrants filed at the Moore County Courthouse.

At least 12 search warrants were filed related to the gunfire attacks on Duke Energy electric substations in Carthage and West End, which stole power from 45,000 customers, killing one woman.

All of the warrants were originally ordered sealed by then-Superior Court Judge James Webb, but that seal has since expired and the warrants are public.

Filed Dec. 4, 2022 to Feb. 21, 2023, the warrants reveal numerous previously undisclosed details about the law enforcement investigation by the Moore County Sheriff’s Office and FBI, including:

A couple of interest

An individual with experience in the power management industry came to investigators’ attention within two days after the attacks. In a Feb. 21, 2023 search warrant request, investigators asked for permission to search the records of four phone numbers they said belonged to a Moore County man and his wife.

The Pilot has declined at this time to name the couple, who have not been charged, due in part to concerns from the Sheriff’s Office about the couple’s and their family’s safety.

In the warrant request, investigators say information they gathered regarding the couple generated enough probable cause to issue searches for four phone numbers connected to them.

Among the facts that investigators listed in the Feb. 21 warrant request:

▪ The Moore County man described himself as a former U.S. Army Ranger who currently works in the “power management” industry with experience in power transformers.

▪ The man recounted to a co-worker the day after the attacks that law enforcement might want to question him because he had been “in communication with people connected with a group called the Moore County Patriots and that they had developed a plan to damage substations in Moore County.”

According to its Facebook page, Moore County Patriots is a “nonpartisan group dedicated to protecting our citizens, rights, freedoms, police, Military.”

How Moore County grabbed attention

▪ The man called a 911 operator to offer his help with repairs and showed up a day later at the county’s Emergency Operations Center.

▪ The man told a co-worker — in a conversation recounted to investigators — that he “may know the guys who carried out the attack” and had been connected to or communicated with Moore County Patriots and Moore County Citizens for Freedom.

▪ During a Dec. 7, 2022 interview with two FBI agents and Sheriff’s investigator Austin Hubbard, the man told investigators he had graduated from N.C. State with a degree in electrical engineering. He “stated that he applied with Duke Energy but decided not to take that job. (He) denied ever having worked, or ever having knowledge of any Duke Energy substations.

“(He) does not have interactions with Duke Energy except for having to request Duke employees to power down and power up his work sites. … (He) more specifically denied having ever been at the Carthage or West End Duke Energy substations. (He) stated that on Monday, December 5, 2022, he was asked by several friends to say as little as possible to law enforcement if he was approached.”

The man told investigators he was home working on a report and spending time with his son at the time of the power outage.

The warrant requests go on to say the Moore County man stated to investigators that “he is part of a group called the ‘Moore County Citizens for Freedom (MCCF) started by Emily Rainey, although he denied knowing of any connection between the group and the power outage.”

Emily Grace Rainey, a former U.S. Army psychological operations officer who has been an outspoken conservative activist on local issues in the past couple of years, posted on Facebook shortly after the outage occurred: “The power is out in Moore County,” wrote Rainey, “and I know why.”

Detectives interviewed Rainey shortly after the power went out. Fields told media during a news conference Sunday, Dec. 4, “We had to go and interview this young lady and have a word of prayer with her ... but it turned out to be nothing,” he said.

After detectives showed up to question Rainey, she went back on social media to say, “God works in mysterious ways ... I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters.”

The outage occurred at the same time that a drag show was underway at the Sunrise Theater. That event drew large demonstrations — both from supporters and opponents — in front of the theater ahead of the show.

The Feb. 21 search warrant request goes on to say that the Moore County man told investigators during his Dec. 7 interview with them that “there are very few members of MCCF who might be capable of performing the attack on Duke Energy substations but denied knowledge of any such plans. (He) further acknowledged that he had multiple friends within MCCF and without MCCF who were protesting a drag show in the area.”

More on Honda Odyssey, one rifle

Investigators over the past year released little about their work — until Dec. 1, two days before the one-year anniversary of the attacks.

Shortly after noon that day, investigators released their first tangible lead to the public: they are searching for a Honda Odyssey van, made between the years 2011-2017 and possibly silver or light blue in color. There was no reason attached as to why investigators were searching for that vehicle, except to say that an occupant might have information about the attacks.

The search warrants yield far more detail. Investigators moved quickly in the first couple of days. They had little physical evidence beyond shell casings at both sites. The casings were identified by investigators in Dec. 4 search warrant requests as 5.56 / .223 rounds, a common casing fired from many kinds of rifles. The 5.56 round is normally fired from a military-issued rifle, while a .223 round is a similar more widely produced civilian version.

The rounds were taken to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, according to a search warrant request filed on Dec. 20. “(P)preliminary findings were that the spent shell casings from the shooting incident at the Carthage, North Carolina Duke Energy substation were fired from the same weapon as the shell casings recovered at the West End, North Carolina Duke Energy substation.”

Immediately after the shootings, investigators canvassed nearby residents, asking about hearing suspicious gunfire or “pops,” and they asked for people to provide any surveillance video like doorbell cameras or exterior security cameras on the off chance it captured anything.

Detectives struck a vein on Dec. 9 at Pinnacle Storage on N.C. 211 just west of the West End substation. Sheriff’s detectives Lt. Eric Galloway and Capt. Don Singleton, reviewing video footage from the company, saw a van enter the business parking lot at approximately 8:35 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2022. The business was not open at the time.

Pinnacle staff said there is only one gate down a driveway the van entered, “and the gate creates a log in their computer system when the gate is entered,” the search warrant request reads. “Pinnacle staff stated that the gate was not entered during the evening of December 3, 2022 when the van was observed on video.”

The van leaves the property and then, at approximately 8:46 p.m., is seen again entering and driving down the same driveway, according to the warrant. “Approximately 1 minute, 10 seconds later, the van was observed on video leaving the property traveling east on N.C. Highway 211 towards the West End Duke Energy substation,” the warrant request reads. “Behind Pinnacle Storage are railroad tracks that lead directly from Pinnacle Storage to the West End Duke Energy substation.”

Investigators submitted the video to the FBI for analysis to determine the make and model of the vehicle.

“I believe that the van observed in the video footage at Pinnacle was lingering in the area,” detectives wrote in the search warrant request. “Additionally, the vehicle was lingering in the area prior to the power going out in the immediate area, during which time it would not be public knowledge that there was an electrical problem effecting (sic) the area.”

But that wasn’t all. According to the search warrant request, Pinnacle Storage video also showed a “light in color truck” leaving Pinnacle Storage from the direction of the West End Duke Energy substation at 9:25 p.m. No Pinnacle Storage video footage showed the truck entering the property.

Investigators have not said publicly if they are seeking a second vehicle.

What about the “Patriots” and “Citizens for Freedom”?

Regarding a question from The Pilot as to whether investigators were looking into the Moore County Patriots and Moore County Citizens for Freedom groups, the Sheriff’s Office responded in writing that it had “no probable cause, so far, that would indicate the specific groups you listed.”

Lastly, the Moore County man “of interest” gave investigators two mobile phone numbers, but the warrant request says law enforcement databases turned up a third with a San Antonio area code and connected to him.

And while the Moore County man told investigators his wife was in Charlotte on Dec. 3, 2022, the search warrant says a phone number affiliated with her “connected to an AT&T tower located approximately 900 yards from the Duke Energy substation” at 7:32 p.m. The warrant says the number “utilized a sector of the tower which provides cellular coverage north and west of Carthage.” It noted her address was in the opposite direction.

Although it has no outstanding search warrants currently, the Sheriff’s Office said it could seek others as it develops new information.

No one ‘unequivocally cleared’

The Sheriff’s Office declined to expand on details in the warrants other than to say no persons of interest have been “unequivocally cleared.”

“We cannot make any comment that could be detrimental in the prosecution of this case,” The Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement provided to The Pilot Friday. “At a point in time, when we have exhausted every last known lead, we will open the file to the citizens of Moore County, as they deserve to know what really happened that fateful night. Until that time, our investigators will continue to work on leads and process information in a diligent manner.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: A longer version of this story was published by The Pilot on Dec. 15. It can be read here.