VANCE COUNTY: Police found Cecil Chacon’s 1976 Buick Skylark abandoned on the outskirts of Henderson at about 4 a.m. on June 9th, 1992. It wasn’t like him. Cecil Chacon was a salt-of-the-earth guy, a loving father and a hard worker who held down three jobs.
The next day, the deputy who found Cecil Chacon's car had a message waiting for him from Cecil Chacon’s mother, Bessie. She and her son were very close. They talked on the phone almost daily. So when she hadn’t heard from him in several days and he never came by his ex-wife's house to pick up his children as planned, Cecil Chacon's mother sensed something was terribly wrong.
Deputies from the Vance County Sheriff’s Office rode by Cecil Chacon's house that evening to see if he was all right. When they arrived, they found an open window at the front of the house and the screen was lying on the ground. They decided to make their way inside.
They entered the house through the basement. From what they could see, everything looked fine. The deputies made their way upstairs to the living quarters and proceeded to check around the house. The kitchen, living room, closets all looked normal. But when they flipped on the light switch to the children’s bedroom, they knew they had entered a crime scene.
There was blood all over the carpet, the bunk bed, an easel and the dresser. There was no body in sight.
Authorities continued to search around the area for a body. They found a piece of plywood in the backyard sitting about 140 feet in from the house. When they lifted it up and moved aside some of the dirt, they found what they were looking for.
Cecil Chacon had been stabbed multiple times and buried in a shallow grave in his own backyard. But when investigators took a closer look at the crime scene, they discovered evidence of a killer with peculiar priorities.
With no obvious trail of blood, investigators were mystified about how the killer got the body out of the house and out the back door without a trace. Cecil Chacon was 6 feet, 5 inches and weighed close to 300 pounds. So what in the world had happened?
“They found several kitchen knives that had been washed,” said Sgt. Charles Sparrow, who is with the Vance County Sherriff’s Office and was the first officer on the scene. “It was in the sink; it had been washed and cleaned. There was evidence that the kitchen floor and the living room floor that was linoleum tile had been scrubbed and cleaned.”
After using luminol, a chemical that causes any traces of blood to glow under black light, officers could see that after Cecil Chacon was killed, he was dragged out of the bedroom, through the house and out the back door.
All this still left State Bureau of Investigation agents and Vance County Sheriff detectives wondering why Cecil Chacon's killer would take such efforts to cover up the crime and bury him in the backyard. They came away from it with a couple of theories.
“I find it hard that one man could overpower him to this extent,” Sgt. Sparrow said. “I really think that it was more than one involved. I don't know how many it would be but I know one man could not overpower somebody his size and stab him as many times as he did.”
Further, Lt. Jimmy Cordell speculates that Cecil Chacon knew his killers.
“I didn’t know Cecil Chacon to have any enemies,” said his cousin Joanie Dickerson. “I mean, everybody who knew him, everybody loved him.”
He was a coordinator for Vance County Schools, and between his hectic work schedule and being with his children, Cecil Chacon cared for his ailing mother. According to Joanie, the time shortly before his death was difficult. He had recently been divorced from his wife.
Initially, there were leads, but each one led to a dead end. A cursory look at the crime scene suggested robbery was the motive, but that theory had problems, which caused investigators to scratch their heads.
“Well there were items, obviously, items taken from the house…a gun and a wallet…but you look at it a little closer and there are a lot problems with that,” said Agent Rick Sims, who has since retired from the SBI. “Some other items from the house weren't taken. The crime was cleaned up, or attempted to be cleaned up. And that's not the act of someone committing a robbery and leaving very quickly.”
A few months after the murder, investigators thought they might have solved the case. After pulling a man over during a routine traffic stop, a state trooper noticed a flashlight in the passenger seat with Cecil Chacon’s name written on it. Soon after, they learned Cecil Chacon's mother sold some of his belongings after his death.
Since then, all roads have led nowhere. The only hope that remains, short of an attack of conscience, is the possibility of applying new technology to old evidence.
“I think there's some evidence in this case,” said Agent Sims. “DNA could be looked at that I think would be very encouraging after 15 years.”
