Daniel Case

Daniel Case, a 47-year-old man from Hendersonville, North Carolina, was known as a kind and funny friend. He worked as an assembly technician at the Meritor plant in Fletcher, where his uncharacteristic absence from a shift in September 2022 raised an alarm. After his employer was unable to reach him by phone or through his emergency contacts, Case was reported missing.

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office investigation soon determined that foul play was involved in his disappearance. In October 2022, detectives located a woman, Cecelia Ann Goodman, driving a vehicle registered to Case. She told law enforcement that she had last seen him with a man named Shane Archie Waters on Pinnacle Mountain Road in Henderson County. Goodman claimed she was driving Case’s car with him in the back seat and Waters in the front passenger seat when the two men began arguing over her.

According to Goodman, she pulled the car over several times to let the men exit and fight. After pulling over a final time, she said she heard what sounded like three gunshots from the woods. Goodman told investigators that Waters then returned to the vehicle and told her to leave. The two left the scene together, and she did not report the incident to the authorities.

When deputies located Waters, he admitted to shooting Case three times in the neck and chest in October 2022. On December 1, 2022, Waters guided law enforcement to the remote, mountainous area where the shooting had occurred. There, detectives found a human skull and scattered bones, which a forensic anthropologist noted had been subjected to extensive animal scavenging. A shirt with defects suggesting bullet holes was also recovered. DNA analysis confirmed the remains belonged to Daniel Case, and an autopsy concluded his death was a homicide.

Shane Archie Waters, 53, and Cecelia Ann Goodman, 36, both from Saluda, were arrested. Waters was initially charged with second-degree homicide, and Goodman was charged with accessory after the fact. The case concluded in May 2026. Waters pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to a prison term of 192 to 243 months. Goodman also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a sentence of 190 to 240 months in prison.