On the evening of December 29, 2023, deputies from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office responded to a breaking and entering at a residence on 877 Big Daddys Road near Pikeville, North Carolina. A 911 caller reported finding a male acquaintance unresponsive and bleeding inside the home. Deputies discovered 39-year-old Robert Lee Mitchell deceased from an apparent gunshot wound; EMS pronounced him dead and his body was sent to the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.

Investigators say Mitchell was not the person who broke into the house. Mitchell is survived by his mother Mary Evans, his daughter Destiny Mitchell, and a close friend, Todd Garris. Funeral services were arranged by Shumate-Faulk Funeral Home, with visitation on January 11, 2024, and a graveside service on January 12, 2024, at Woodland Friends Cemetery in Dudley, North Carolina.

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information to contact Detective Frank Sauls at 919-580-4066 or Crime Stoppers at 919-735-2255. Did anyone in the area see or hear anything on the night of December 29 that could help investigators?