No new leads in Duplin murder
By Nelson Bland
Published in News on October 22, 2009 1:46 PM
KENANSVILLE -- The apparent shooting death of an Albertson teenager Sept. 25 is still being investigated by the Duplin County Sheriff's Office but no concrete motive for the homicide has been established, Sheriff Blake Wallace said this week.
The victim, Kenes Alonso Lopez Baraona, 17, was found dead by his roommate, Oseas Neemias Aviles, 25, in a mobile home that the two shared at 634 Guy Sanderson Road at Albertson in northern Duplin County.
"Mr. Baraona suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest," Wallace said.
He said he did not want to release the type of weapon that was used because it could jeopardize the investigation.
A motive for the killing has not been established, although it is not believed to be robbery, Wallace said.
"We don't have a motive, but we have some theories, but nothing rock solid right now," he said.
Wallace said Baraona had talked with some relatives and friends a short while before he was found.
"Some family members saw him earlier in the week, and some saw him earlier that evening," Wallace said.
He said a window had been broken out of the trailer but it could not be determined if that was related to the shooting death.
Wallace also said it was difficult to determine if the house had been ransacked because it was sparsely furnished.
"Right not the death is being investigated as a homicide and it is still an active investigation," he said.
According to the incident report on file, the Duplin County emergency communications center received a call to "a breaking and entering in progress at 634 Guy Sanderson Road."
The caller was Aviles, according to the report, which noted that Aviles told deputies who arrived at the scene that his roommate was "in the trailer kitchen dead."
After arriving at the scene, deputies went inside the trailer and discovered the body.
The report also noted that deputies went to a trailer next door and spoke with a female who said "when her husband left to go to work he noticed the back door to the trailer (at 634 Guy Sanderson Road) was open, and Aviles' pickup truck was not there."
According to the report, deputies said Aviles told them he had been in Charlotte and Salisbury "for a couple of days" and when he returned home about 4:30 or 5 a.m., Friday, Sept. 25, he found Baraona dead on the kitchen floor and called 911.
Deputies arrived at the trailer to find a Hispanic male "lying on the kitchen floor with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the chest," the report noted
Wallace said an autopsy later determined that the victim had suffered a gunshot wound.