McCoy's body found in Buncombe; Cherokee men charged with murder

By Rose Hooper

McCoy

Investigators say the body was found in a lightly-wooded area just 60 feet from the Interstate. According to the investigators, the young mother of Pepion's children was shot in the left side of her head.

Buncombe County District Attorney Ron Moore had offered to take the case since District Attorney Charles Hipps has a pending first-degree murder case that he has referred to as "the biggest case in the state of North Carolina." In that case, five members of the Haywood County Phillips family were murdered in September 1999.

However, because McCoy's murder may have occurred in Haywood County, the case is anticipated to be prosecuted there.

Pepion

"We don't have to be in a big hurry now because we know where the two suspects are, and they are not going anywhere," he said.

Both Pepion and Groenwold made court appearances in Transylvania County Tuesday on one count each of burning personal property. As of press time Wednesday, they were being held in the Transylvania County Jail on $50,000 secured bond each.

Pepion has retained attorneys Paul Welch of Brevard and Reid Brown of Waynesville to represent him on the Transylvania County charge, while the court appointed Brevard attorney Scott Neuman to represent Groenwold, said Dorie Mahoney of the Transylvania County Clerk of Court's office.

Just three and a half hours later, McCoy's 1997 black Chevrolet pickup truck was found burned on McGuire Road off Highway 280 in Transylvania County.

When Pepion failed to keep a Feb. 6 court appearance in Jackson County on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and first-degree kidnapping in regard to an October incident involving McCoy, he was charged with failure to appear and ordered arrested.

Both he and Groenwold were arrested that evening at Pepion's father's home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana. They were extradited back to Western North Carolina on the Transylvania and Jackson county charges, according to Lt. Darrin Young with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.

An SBI agent, Cherokee Police Chief Jonah Wolfe and an investigator with the Haywood County Sheriff's Department flew to Montana Friday, Feb. 9, and returned late Saturday in an SBI plane with the pair.

A student at Southwestern Community College, McCoy had two children, ages 2 and 6, with Pepion. On Monday, Feb. 12, friends and family held an Indian fry bread fund-raiser at the Cherokee Fire Department. A fund has been set up for the children and to assist the family with bills.

Contributions may be sent to Mountain Federal Credit Union, P.O. Box 241, Cherokee, N.C. 28719. Checks should be payable to the Estate of Deanah McCoy. Any branch of Carolina Community Bank is also accepting donations, which should be specified for the Deanah McCoy Fund.

Meanwhile, local authorities are continuing to investigate two other murder cases. The Sylva Police Department is seeking suspects and a motive in the stabbing death of 49-year-old Lynn Rule. She was found dead Monday, Feb. 5, in her Drury Lane home.

Searching this past weekend in the Moses Creek woods turned up no additional evidence in the case against Derek Anderson, 32, of Wisconsin, who has been charged with murdering his father, Allen Krnak, in 1998. Krnak, his wife and his younger son were reported missing July 1998. The father's body was found by hunters in Roy Taylor Forest near Moses Creek in 1999, but investigators were unable to positively identify him until January.

Anderson, who changed his name shortly after his family was reported missing, is fighting extradition from Wisconsin. Local law enforcement have requested Gov. Mike Easley assist with the extradition process and have provided his office with the facts of the case.

News Editor Lisa Majors-Duff and Assistant Editor Carey Phillips contributed to this report.

Back to Archive: 02/15/01.