

Stroupe was charged with a similar robbery committed on June 21. Security camera footage from the Valley Ag store observed the truck turning onto N.C.

Stroupe later told authorities that he had kidnapped Bryson at gunpoint at his mailbox, warrants state. was on the Blue Ridge Parkway flashing his lights and honking his horn, attempting to give his son a waypoint as he eluding capture.īryson's body was found the night of July 30.

said he had been given directions to Bryson's body and that he had been asked to conceal it further, but said he wasn't able to understand the directions, according to warrants. In an interview with an SBI special agent, Stroupe Sr. was arrested for accessory after the fact of first-degree kidnapping. Officers later photographed the word "exit" printed on the other side of his hands but the other words had been smudged out, warrants state.Īfter the meeting, Stroupe Sr. Bottom line," Stroupe told his father later in the conversation.Īfter a McDowell County sheriff's deputy realized the interaction was taking place he tried to look at Stroupe's hands, but he resisted. "Do you get this? Do you know where it's at? She's (Stroupe's lawyer) saying that as long as they don't have him, they don't have nothing. You got to get close cause they'll see it. "I need you to uh, I don't have nobody else and I need you to do this, OK?" Stroupe reportedly instructed his father July 29 while showing him his hand. "You can read it. Stroupe reportedly wrote directions to where the body was located on his hand in pen and tried to covertly show them to his father, Phillip Stroupe Sr., 68, of Burnsville, during the visit.Īccording to warrants, a nearby officer wasn't able to make out the two men's discussion, so he pulled the recording of the conversation.
#STROUPE KIDNAPPED MAN HOW TO#
Warrants also state Stroupe tried to instruct his father how to move Bryson's body during a prison visit. A revolver was also located near where Stroupe was captured in McDowell. No caliber was specified in warrants, but Stroupe was spotted several times during the manhunt carrying a silver. Warrants state Bryson was shot in the head with a single projectile. A few days later, he was attempting to flee authorities when he rammed a stolen car into a Buncombe County sheriff's deputy's vehicle, authorities said.Warrants related to Henderson County's investigation of Phillip Michael Stroupe II, who is accused of kidnapping and murdering a 68-year-old Mills River man, reveal how Thomas Bryson died. Last month, Stroupe was named as a suspect in the armed robbery of a store in Weaverville. He was released from prison in April 2015. In 1999, Stroupe was sentenced to more than 18 years, the maximum allowed, for felony robbery with a deadly weapon and as well as breaking and entering and false imprisonment. Stroupe had just been released from the Yancey County jail July 20 and has spent most of the past two decades behind bars, according to North Carolina prison records. There are things we just aren't certain of at this time," the sheriff said. "He had a lot of time to cover a lot more ground. It was not immediately clear when those areas would reopen.Īn even bigger search area was being used to try to find Bryson, McDonald said at a news conference. Forest Service had two camps and two roads closed late Wednesday. The search for Stroupe included hundreds of miles in the Pisgah National Forest, parts of which were closed to visitors. More charges will likely be filed in Transylvania and Henderson counties from his escape Saturday and what may have happened to Bryson on Wednesday, authorities said. Stroupe faces drug, weapons and fleeing police charges in McDowell County. Phone messages left with the families of Bryson and Stroupe were not returned Thursday. Stroupe was a "product of an enabling family, and that's been a problem for us," McDonald said. Stroupe also had relatives near where he was arrested, including an aunt who was taken into custody after refusing to leave a law enforcement barricade, authorities said.
