GRANVILLE COUNTY — Two new search warrants were returned Thursday in the case of a missing Stem woman.
Kelly Morris, 28, was reported missing in September after firefighters responded to a blaze at her home on Tump Wilkins Road. Police found her burgundy 2005 Honda Accord, keys, purse and cell phone on the same day in an undeveloped subdivision about a mile from her home.
Thursday's warrants were for access to an e-mail account belonging to Morris and access to her husband's bank records at Cardinal Bank dating to Jan. 1.
Police have called Scott Morris, her husband, a person of interest in her disappearance, and he has been a focus of investigators in multiple search warrants related to the case.
Family members and friends told authorities the couple was having marital problems and had talked about divorce, according to affidavits that detectives gave the court to support their requests for the warrants.
They also indicate inconsistencies between Scott Morris' account and those of others regarding his actions in the hours after he says he last saw his wife.
Morris' family, friends and volunteers have conducted numerous searches and have held a number of vigils to keep the case in the public eye.
They say they won't give up until they bring her home. Volunteers can send an e-mail to helpfindkelly@gmail.com to ask for more information on how to help.
Granville County sheriff's investigators, meanwhile, continue their investigation and urge anyone with information about the case to call 919-693-3213 or a volunteer search line at 919-812-2310.
__________________________________________________________________
Kelly Morris has been missing from her Granville County home for over three months and although investigators publicly say this is still a missing persons case, search warrants tell a different story.
Warrants returned November 4 state that Kelly Morris’ disappearance is being treated as a homicide, and inconsistent statements made by her husband have placed him at the center of the investigation.
Kelly never showed up at work on September 4, 2008. Shortly after 11 a.m., a 911 caller reported that the house in Stem that Kelly shared with her husband, Scott, and two daughters was on fire. The fire was pretty quickly determined to be arson.
Later that day, Kelly’s car, with her cell phone and purse inside, were found about a mile from her home. Kelly, whether dead or alive, is still missing, and leads are running out. Investigators need the public to come forward with any information that may help solve this case.
At this point, said Granville County Sheriff David Smith, “our main focus is trying to find her (Kelly)… but we just don’t have anything very positive or new to tell.”
He added that investigators continue to work any tips that come in, but searches have turned out to be “fruitless.”
Search warrants highlight significant discrepancies between statements made by Scott Morris and his father during the initial investigation. The warrants also suggested that the murder and arson are linked, but Sheriff Smith would not confirm that detail.
If Scott Morris files an insurance claim for the fire, he will likely have to give a deposition to the insurance company -- sworn testimony that could be used against him in a criminal trial.
Scott was the last person to see Kelly alive on the evening of September 3. He told police that Kelly left their home at 9:30 p.m. to search for their missing dog. After she left, he said, he showered and went to bed. Scott did not tell police that he placed or received any telephone calls, but cell phone records show that Scott called his father at 9:45 p.m. and made another call to an unnamed person at 11:56 p.m. He received a call from his father at 10:59 p.m.
When Scott received this call from his father, Jimmy, cell phone records indicate the call bounced off a Creedmoor cell tower. If Scott had been at home when he got the call, his cell phone would have used a Stem tower. Jimmy Morris and his wife, Carolyn, live in Creedmoor.
Jimmy was interviewed by investigators on September 12. He did not mention a missing dog. He said Scott asked him to watch the children while Scott went out to look for Kelly. He told police that Scott believed Kelly was cheating on him.
Family and friends of the couple told police their marriage was strained and that they had discussed divorce in the past. They said Scott had occasionally punched holes in the wall or thrown things during arguments.
Furthermore, although Scott said Kelly left to look for their dog, Kelly's daughter told police that when she and her sister left for school the morning of September 4, the couple's two dogs were locked in the crate.
When firefighters arrived at the scene of the fire, the dogs were outside. Scott said in his statement that he took the girls to school, ran a series of errands and went straight to work without returning home. But the warrant points out holes in his story.
According to the warrant, Scott told police that he woke up at 6:30 a.m., got the girls ready for school, dropped his work truck off at the BP station where he works, picked up his personal car and dropped the girls off at school. Scott told police he was supposed to meet a tow truck driver he worked with at 6 a.m., but the driver had pushed the meeting back to 8 a.m. The driver told police that Scott was the one who moved back their meeting.
Either way, the driver confirmed that Scott met him sometime between 8:05 and 8:15 a.m., stayed two or three minutes, and left. Surveillance footage at the storage lot where they met showed Scott leave at 8:14 a.m., the warrant states.
Scott told police he went straight to Hardee's and then back to work. Video surveillance from the Shell station next to Hardee's, however, shows a car matching Scott's car driving by -- traveling in the direction that suggested Scott was coming from his house, not from the storage lot -- nearly an hour later.
Scott is seen on Hardee's surveillance video a minute after the car was filmed coming from the direction of the Morris' house. The video then shows Scott leave the Hardee's parking lot and turn back toward his house, which was not the way he would have gone to work at the BP station, the warrant states.
Until Kelly or Kelly's body are found, however, investigators will have a hard time working solely with circumstantial evidence. They must prove that a crime has taken place -- that Kelly Morris did not disappear voluntarily. They need your help.
If you have any information about the unsolved case of Kelly Morris, 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.
