Lakyn Jade Bailey

Lakyn Jade Bailey, a 25-year-old White woman from Davidson, North Carolina, was found deceased in the early morning of January 27, 2019. Salisbury Police were called around 1:30 a.m. to the Country Cupboard convenience store on Statesville Boulevard in Salisbury, where they discovered Bailey inside a vehicle. She had suffered a single, fatal gunshot wound. The car had been driven to the store by a friend of Bailey’s.

During the initial response, police determined the shooting had occurred outside city limits, and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office took lead on the homicide investigation. Detectives traced the incident to the area of Apple Road and Woodleaf Road. The investigation, which involved assistance from the State Bureau of Investigation and several other local law enforcement agencies, revealed that Bailey had been staying at a motel in Statesville and was involved in illegal drug sales. Investigators believe she had driven to Rowan County, where a methamphetamine deal turned violent, resulting in her death. The friend who drove her to the convenience store, 41-year-old Jason Donald Cranfill, was later charged with felony possession of methamphetamine.

Within days, authorities made two arrests. First, they charged Joshua Wade Kennedy, a 35-year-old registered sex offender from West Virginia who had been living in Iredell and Rowan counties, with murder and attempted robbery. Shortly after, investigators charged a second man, 36-year-old James Christopher Rife of Cleveland, North Carolina, with the same crimes. Rife was already in the Rowan County Detention Center on unrelated charges when he was identified as a person of interest and subsequently charged in Bailey’s murder.

Both men were held in jail without bond while awaiting trial. On September 12, 2019, James Christopher Rife was found unresponsive in his single cell at the Rowan County Detention Center. After life-saving efforts were unsuccessful, he was pronounced dead. Authorities reported there were no signs of trauma or foul play, and the State Bureau of Investigation was called to investigate his death. The case against co-defendant Joshua Wade Kennedy continues, and as of early 2020, he remained in jail without bond. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at (704) 216-8687 or Salisbury-Rowan Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.