| September
1, 2005 |
| |
| Detectives Investigate Death of Freedom Student |
| "a very suspicious death," says
Sheriff |
| |
| Burke County Sheriff's investigators and agents
with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation are investigating the
suspicious death of a sixteen-year-old male, found last night inside a wrecked
automobile on Mount Olive Church Road. |
| |
| "We are treating this case as a homicide," said
Burke County Sheriff John T. McDevitt, "although we must await autopsy results
before we will know for sure." |
| |
| Troopers with the N.C. State Highway Patrol and
Burke County EMS personnel responded to a single-car accident on Mount Olive
Church Road around 9:22 PM last night. |
| |
| There they found Freedom High School student
Noua Xiong alone inside the overturned vehicle. Medical workers were unable to
revive him, and he was later pronounced dead. |
| |
| McDevitt said that a medical examiner at Grace
Hospital found suspicious wounds on the body this morning. McDevitt and a
detective went to the hospital and viewed the boy's body, which led the sheriff
to begin the homicide investigation. |
| |
| "It appears very questionable that his injuries
were caused in a fatal vehicle accident," stated McDevitt, who would not
disclose the nature of the wounds. "We should know more tomorrow morning, at
the completion of Baptist Hospital's autopsy." |
| |
| Detectives and SBI agents are continuing their
investigation, and are asking anyone with information to contact the Sheriff's
Office Detective Division at (828) 438-5506. |
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