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Family, friends and police seek to resolve unanswered questions on anniversary of murder

Eddie Greene was shot and killed in Long View.

John M. Setzler Jr.

Eddie Greene’s sister, Stacy Holloway, her children, Austin and Mikayla, and his mother, Wilma Yount, discuss his unsolved murder.

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: October 3, 2009

GRANITE FALLS - More than 30 people gathered at Eddie Greene Jr.'s grave next to Dudley Shoals Baptist Church on Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of his murder.

Music played and prayers for justice and answers were uttered as Greene's family and friends joined together to remember Greene at a candlelight vigil.

Greene, 26, of Granite Falls, was found murdered in his work van at 1937 First Ave., SW, in Long View on Oct. 3, 2008. He'd been shot twice in the head.

Greene had just built a house for his fiancee and her daughter and made the first payment on the home the day before he was killed.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of the person or people who committed the murder. His family hopes the money will motivate someone to go to the police with information that will provide a break in the case.

The reward has been announced on signs and fliers Greene's family and friends have posted.

"Thousands of signs have been put up over the past year, from Lenoir to Hickory," Greene's sister Stacy Holloway said. She said the fliers are regularly torn off the power poles in Long View near the vacant lot where her brother was found, but the family keeps putting them back up.

The Long View Police Department has yet to make any arrests in the case and has not announced any suspects. Police Investigator Raymond Denton is heading up the investigation with assistance from the State Bureau of Investigation.

While police remain tight-lipped about the investigation, Greene's family tries to remain patient and hopeful.

"I feel like they've done a pretty good job with the investigation," Eddie Greene's mother Wilma Yount said.

"I think they're getting pretty close," she said. "I'm being patient with them — trying to."

Greene's stepfather, Bobby Yount, said he, too, wants Greene's murderer arrested, but he wants the charges to stick. He wants the killer to be convicted and sentenced with no room for errors or appeals. He said he's willing to be patient while the investigators work to build a strong case before making an arrest.

"I'm pretty sure they'll make an arrest. We've told them we don't want them to rush," Yount said.
But others remain less optimistic.

"I would have thought they would have made an arrest by now," said Greene's fiancee Melody Wilson. "I hope they haven't just thrown this case to the side."

"I don't want to say I've lost hope," she said. "I hope they make an arrest, but I don't see it in the near future."

Wilson said much of her frustration comes from investigators who won't tell her what's going on with the case.

That frustration is shared by Greene's father, Eddie Greene Sr.

He talks to the investigators regularly. He said they don't tell him much, but he shares everything he learns about the case's progress with Wilson.

The two have remained close since the shooting and speak by phone several times per week. Greene said he'll always consider her his daughter-in-law.

Denton said he's cautious about what information he shares about the investigation because he doesn't want to risk a future conviction. He said he shares what information he can with Greene's mother, father and stepfather.

For his part, Greene thinks his son was killed by someone he knew or had worked with, and he's angry the murderer has not been caught.

Through tears he said, "I want something done because I love Eddie and I miss him — he was my son."

In the year since Greene's murder, a rift has developed between the surviving family members. That rift kept Greene's father and fiancee from attending the candlelight vigil held at his graveside Saturday evening.

Bobby Yount said, "Whoever this person is, they've messed this family up."

"God – it's been awful. I wish every day I would just die," said Wilma Yount. "Eddie was my best friend. I still don't know what I'm going to do without him.

"Somebody knows something — somebody knows who did this," she said. "It took an animal to do something like this."

Yount said she thinks the motive for her son's murder was simple — robbery.

That has not been confirmed by law enforcement.

"We've asked about drugs and they said there was nothing to indicate that," said Bobby Yount. "I just don't know how it could have happened two blocks from the police station and for the van's lights to be on for two hours before they found Eddie."

"Even the detective told us he hadn't heard anything negative about Eddie. That's what he told us," Yount said. "I think the people that don't know Eddie would have loved him."

Denton said he continues to work on the case on a daily basis, adding more than 100 interviews have been conducted so far.

"Something like this – it's priority number one," he said. "It's just a long process."