On October 8, 2014, James Arthur Walker Jr., 43, was killed during a home invasion at the family residence on Fifth Avenue in Spencer, North Carolina. Family members say three men wearing gorilla masks entered the home; one asked for James’ nephew, Antonio Tony Darnell Walker, by name. The intruders went to a bedroom and shot Antonio. James, known as Junior, tried to protect his family, reached for his gun, was struck in the head with a firearm and then shot. Antonio, 29, stumbled into the living room and died beside his uncle.

The Spencer Police Department, assisted by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, treated the killings as targeted rather than random and identified robbery and Antonio Walker’s drug involvement as motive factors. In September 2014 Kenneth Abel Jr., 32, entered guilty pleas to two counts of second-degree murder; he had been held in Rowan County jail since his October 15, 2014 arrest. Co-defendants Darius Abel, 29, and James Robinson, 28, were also in custody after October 2014 arrests; the trial for Darius Abel and James Robinson began in February 2019 and the prosecution presented robbery as the motive.

Who in Spencer might have seen those masked men or has information about the robbery and its planning?