Dillion Zayne Wirt, 23, of Asheboro, North Carolina, was shot and killed sometime before 2:15 a.m. on February 7, 2021. He was described as a kind, outgoing young man — a 2017 Southwestern Randolph High School graduate who worked as a welder and enjoyed woodworking and the outdoors. Friends and family remembered him as warm, motivated, and deeply loved.

Police located signs of a violent crime at a home on the 600 block of Farr Street but Dillion’s body was not found there. Investigators focused on the former Glendon Pyrophyllite Rock Quarry in neighboring Moore County, and later that evening two people from Asheboro — Branson Raye Lambert, 21, and Jessica Lynn Loflin, 36 — were arrested in Virginia. Divers recovered Dillion’s body from the quarry on February 8; an autopsy confirmed a gunshot wound as the cause of death. Lambert was charged with murder and Loflin with accessory after the fact, with warrants alleging she helped move and dispose of the body. Prosecutors said the motive was Lambert’s paranoia that Dillion would report him for an armed robbery the previous day, and that the same gun was used in both crimes.