Twenty one years ago today, Ray Dennis left his home in Erwin for the Mule Days Festival in Benson. He and a friend went every year, but this time, Dennis never came home. He was 25.
A man found his body in the road; it was an apparent hit-and-run. Dennis had been drinking and he and his girlfriend left Benson in the early morning hours of September 25. They weren’t driving long before Dennis’ car broke down and after an unsuccessful search for a ride and then an argument, the two parted ways.
“He was a good person to me,” said Joyce Johnson, Dennis’ mother. “He wasn’t perfect but he was a good son.”
Things were good for Ray, a blue-collared, hometown kind of guy who enjoyed working on cars and relaxing with friends. He had landed a well-paying job and just bought a house. He liked to drink, and the autopsy report revealed a blood alcohol level at more than twice the legal limit.
Theories of the crime ran the gamut – was he beaten to death and thrown in the road to make it look like a hit-and-run? If it was a hit and run, was it an accident or on purpose?
“I’ve heard so many stories on this over the years that in my heart, he was run over on purpose,” said best friend Keith Holmes, who accompanied Dennis to Mule Days the night he was killed. The two separated sometime late evening.
“He told me, ‘I’ll be back in a few minutes,’ and when we got ready to leave the street dance,” he said. “I couldn’t find him and I never saw him again.”
Former State Trooper Dean Hewitt, who responded to the scene that morning, remembers it as an unusual crime scene – no debris in the road, no skid marks, and the appearance that Dennis had been dragged a number of feet.
“After looking over the scene, the accident scene did not appear to be a standard motor vehicle collision involving a pedestrian,” Hewitt said, noting the lack of debris on the road.
In the two decades since Ray’s death, rumors have run wild in Erwin, a town of 4,800 people less than five miles from Dunn, in Harnett County.
Much talk has centered on Jerry Gautier, an ex-boyfriend of Ray’s girlfriend, Mary Giggio. Gautier’s friend Paula Allen Bradshaw had a car repaired in Fayetteville not long after the crash, which heightened suspicion of law enforcement and Dennis’s family. In interviews with police she said she hit a dog.
Joyce, aware of the rumors, arranged to buy the car through a third party and immediately turned the car over to the State Bureau of Investigation for forensic testing.
According to a report prepared by a private investigation firm hired by Dennis’s mother, there were claims by some that in search of a ride or by coincidence, Giggio made contact with an ex-boyfriend that night and there was an argument between Mary and Ray about whether to accept a ride from him and his friend. At that point, details get hazy but the story ends the same: Ray is hit by the car and left dead in the middle of the road.
Blood and hair were found on the undercarriage of the car, but after extensive testing, the hair and blood were not a match. Still, Johnson harbors suspicions and is waiting for an apology or, at the very least, an explanation of what happened that night.
Efforts to reach Bradshaw, Gautier and Giggio for comment were unsuccessful. NC Wanted contacted Bradshaw's father, Arthur Allen, who the vehicle was registerd to, but he refused to comment, explaining that he had been advised by his lawyer not to discuss the case.
The case remains open and although it has changed hands over the years, authorities remain convinced people in the community know what happened that night. A Governor’s Reward of $2,500 is waiting for the person with the information that solves the case, long gone cold.
“I know that I’ve got to forgive them to be able to make it into heaven,” Johnson said. “But how can I forgive them if they won’t admit what they’ve done?”
If you have any information about this incident, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.
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