Two North Carolina teens reported missing over the weekend were found shot dead on Sunday in western Orange County.
Family members confirmed the bodies were 14-year-old Lyric Woods and 18-year-old Devin Clark, WTVD reported, although the medical examiner has not made an official confirmation.
“Although we do not have that confirmation yet, in the absence of any other missing persons matching the descriptions of the individuals located, the tragic but logical conclusion is increasingly clear,” Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. “This loss is devastating for the victims’ families and friends, and indeed for the entire community.”
Woods was a freshman at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough and was reported missing Saturday afternoon by her family. Clark’s family reported him missing on Sunday. He was a senior at Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane, where he played football.
Investigators said the pair were acquaintances, WTVD reported.
Men riding ATVs Sunday afternoon found the bodies near a powerline easement at about 3 p.m, the sheriff’s office said. David White, who lives near the location, told the television station he heard what sounded like automatic gunfire a few nights earlier.
“I heard close to 10 shots going off like an automatic gun and paused for a little bit, and five more shots went off,” he said. “I thought, ‘who’s shooting this late at night?'”
While Woods’s family asked for privacy to grieve, Clark’s family sought answers.
“He never hurt anybody, so for him to get done like this is — I have to have answers,” his mother, Tiffany Concepcion, said. “I want to get justice and I don’t care where I have to go, what I have to do, who I’ve got to talk to, I’m going to keep going and keep doing it.”
The teens’ high schools honored them with a moment of silence during a soccer game between the two Monday night, and East Alamance High School held a balloon release for Clark on its football. Clark’s aunt, Crystal Hughes, said it was gratifying to see the love for her nephew but added that the family has many questions.
“It’s hard for us to process everything that’s going on because we don’t have any details,” Hughes said. “And we really, our lack of information and is just not sitting right with us with the stuff that we’re hearing and all different sides of the story we know, hoping that the police department in investigation is going the way that it’s supposed to go. But it’s hard on us.”
Woods’s stepfather reported her missing Saturday at about noon, saying that he last saw her at about 11 p.m. Friday and found her missing when he went to wake her Saturday morning, the News & Observer said. Investigators said it appeared she left through the back door, which was unlocked. Her grandfather offered a $10,000 reward for information about her death on Monday.
Clark’s family said that he, too, was last seen at about 11 p.m. Friday, but the missing person report provided few other details.
Anyone with information is asked to call Investigator Keith Goodwin at the Sheriff’s Office at 919-245-2918.
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[Featured image: Devin Clark and Lyric Woods/GoFundMe]
