James Edward Schultheis III, 30, was found fatally shot near his Jordan Avenue residence in Snow Hill, North Carolina, on April 23, 2023. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene; an autopsy found he had sustained six gunshot wounds to the torso. His memorial service was held May 5, 2023, at Farmer Funeral Chapel in Ayden.

The Snow Hill Police Department, assisted by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, opened a homicide investigation. That inquiry led to the arrest of Schultheis’s fiancée, 29-year-old Tameka Best of Ayden, who was taken into custody in Greenville on April 30, 2024, and charged with second-degree murder; she was scheduled to make her first court appearance on May 3, 2024. Schultheis was a lifelong Pitt County resident who worked in landscaping and construction and was remembered as a loving son, brother, uncle, fiancé, and stepfather who enjoyed fishing and watching his nephews play sports.

What details about the events of April 23 might help explain how this happened to James?