LAKE GASTON, N.C. (WAVY) — Relatives of a North Carolina couple targeted in a deadly home invasion are speaking out about the crime.
Authorities said masked men broke into John and Nancy Alford’s home on Lake Gaston last Friday.
Law enforcement officials said one of the men forced Nancy to drive him to an ATM and take out cash before returning to the home.
That’s when officials said the Alfords were beaten and tied up before the suspects set the home on fire.
Only John Alford made it out alive.
“I couldn’t believe this had happened to my brother,” said Donald Alford about the moment he got the phone call.
Alford said it’s been a rough week for his family, who are still trying to figure out why someone would harm his brother and sister-in-law.
Alford said the couple is originally from Portsmouth and know many people still in the area.
John Alford is a pastor and Nancy was a psychiatrist.
“She was a sweetheart, too. Very educated, both of them. He wanted to be a minister. He’s been a minister for almost 30 years,” he said.
Alford said his brother’s dreams of ministering took them from Hampton Roads to the Lake Gaston area.
“He said God called him. He moved up there, bought a place, and been there ever since up on the lake. He was just an average guy, but he took his preaching seriously,” he said.
Deputies arrested two suspects, Kevin Munn and Lester Kearney, for the crime earlier this week.
Our sister station, WNCN in Raleigh, reported Kearney once faced muder charges in another deadly home invasion that occurred in 2011.
Munn and Kearney are charged with first degree murder.
The Warren County District Attorney Mike Waters told a Raleigh television station that the suspects knew of the Alford’s but have not said how.
Alford told 10 On Your Side he believes the men may have worked on the victims’ home.
Munn and Kearney are being held without bond.
Alford had a message for the two.
” I don’t have words for it. I hope they get what’s coming to them. It’s wrong what they’ve done. I don’t know why they did it. It’s something you don’t know. Just plain mean people period,” Alford said.
