Boyfriend charged with murder of local woman

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields announced in a news advisory the apprehension of one individual following a homicide investigation in the Seagrove area of Moore County.

On Thursday,  Moore County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a suspicious death at a residence in Seagrove.  At approximately 7:45 a.m, a co-resident of 40-year-old Debbie Owens found her deceased in her bedroom after checking on her. Owens had not been seen since Monday evening. A responding medical examiner determined Owens’ cause of death to be a homicide.

The investigation resulted in warrants for arrest being issued for Owens’ boyfriend, 52-year-old Jimmy Sheffield, for first-degree murder. Sheffield resided with Owens and had left the residence in his vehicle shortly after Owens was last seen alive. Sheffield and Owens both failed to show up for work in Montgomery County on Tuesday morning and had not been seen since.

Moore County Sheriff’s investigators coordinated with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and the Myrtle Beach Police Department to locate Sheffield. Sheffield was apprehended by South Carolina authorities in Myrtle Beach shortly before 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Sheffield is being held in a South Carolina detention facility on a fugitive warrant pending extradition to North Carolina and is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The investigation into the death of Debbie Owens is still ongoing.