Arrest made in 1996 murder
By From staff reports
Published in News on November 14, 2014 1:46 PM
An inmate who allegedly confessed to a killing that unfolded nearly 20 years ago in LaGrange was arrested and charged Thursday with an open count of murder.
Thomas Steele Dail, 50, of the North Carolina Department of Correction, allegedly told lawmen he was responsible for killing 16-year-old Jared Graybeal in April of 1996.
The teenager's body was found in a field off Louie Pollock Road April 4 of that year -- a day after he was last seen at a small restaurant in Goldsboro called Café Eldeweiss.
Graybeal's body indicated he died from multiple stab wounds to his abdomen and back.
The nearly 20-year-old case was cracked after extensive forensic DNA testing by the State Bureau of Investigation enabled lawmen to build a criminal case against Thomas Steele Dail, who had, before his incarceration, resided in Goldsboro and the Mount Olive area.
At the time of Graybeal's murder, Dail was under investigation for the murder of an N.C. DMV examiner that had occurred in Duplin County on Nov. 11, 1995 -- a crime he was arrested for and later convicted of committing.
"This has been an extremely challenging case," Lenoir County Sheriff Chris Hill said. "But the combined relentless efforts of the Sheriff's Office, Goldsboro Police Department and the NCSBI brought this case to its finality."