Man is accused of shooting elderly relatives in a North Carolina home

NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, NC (WBTV) – A man was arrested after he allegedly shot an elderly couple at close range in North Carolina Thursday night.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m., officers were called to the couple’s home in Northampton County, near the North Carolina-Virginia state line

When they arrived, they found a 72-year-old man and his 70-year-old wife dead in their front yard. The Sheriff’s Office said they were in the driveway and both had been shot with a shotgun.

Investigators determined that the suspect, 35-year-old Ryvaries Butcher, stole the victim’s truck and fled immediately after the shooting. Authorities found the truck at a hotel in Roanoke Rapids around 2:20 a.m. Friday. Butcher was arrested just before 4:30 a.m

The sheriff’s office said the motive for the shooting was unclear, but that Butcher was a neighbor and relative of the victims.

He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and grand theft of a vehicle and is being held in jail without bail.

Officials have not yet released the names of the two victims.

The Halifax County Sheriff’s Office, Roanoke Rapids Police Department and the NC State Bureau of Investigation assisted in the case.

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