Donald Bradley Smithwick, 33, was kidnapped from his Ahoskie, North Carolina, home on the morning of October 4, 2007, as he left for work at Nucor of Hertford County. His body was found five days later near Edenton by a North Carolina Wildlife Officer. An autopsy determined he had been fatally shot in the head on the day of the abduction.

Investigators reported that a taser was used to subdue, bind, and remove Smithwick. Blood evidence in his driveway, in the cab of his pick-up truck, and in a vehicle driven by Kitty Hawk police officer Raymond Christian Jedele connected that vehicle to the crime. Jedele was involved in a vehicle accident shortly after the abduction on the Eden House Bridge over the Chowan River. Smithwick’s ex-wife, Janet Denise Harrell, was said to have been implicated and reportedly had a significant role in planning; at the time the couple were in a custody dispute and Smithwick was due to sign custody paperwork the day after he was taken.

Did anyone in the region have contact with Smithwick around October 4, 2007, or notice suspicious activity near his home or along the Chowan River bridge?