Autopsy report is back
By From staff reports
Published in News on February 6, 2013 1:46 PM
Kennedy McLaurin
The cause of death has been released in connection with the September murder of a Goldsboro teenager.
Kennedy McLaurin, 16, who was kidnapped and murdered in 2012, had been beaten, burned and shot twice in the chest before being buried in a temporary grave, according to an autopsy report released Tuesday by the state Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Chapel Hill.
The body of Kennedy Fitzgerald McLaurin, 16, was discovered in a shallow grave on a farm south of Goldsboro more than a week after he disappeared.
Leonard Eugene Joyner, 21, Jerome Jilah Butts, 19, Kevin Edward Smith, 18, and Curtis Etheredge, 17, all face charges of murder in connection with his death.
The autopsy report indicated that McLaurin's body was first buried in a shallow grave and then re-buried. He had been hit over the head with a shovel, the report said.
McLaurin, 16, of Rose Street, was first reported missing to Goldsboro police by his mother on Sunday, Sept. 9. He was reportedly abducted by several men on Bain Street in the Woodcrest Housing community and forced into the car they were driving. A statewide Amber Alert was issued after he was reported missing
His body was found Sept. 22 but it could not be immediately identified.
His remains were positively identified using DNA technology on Nov. 7.
Judge Arnold Jones ruled that the body could not be returned to the family for burial until the autopsy was complete. Details of the funeral were not available at press time.