IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — A convicted felon was arrested and charged with murder after a woman was found shot to death in Iredell County early Monday morning, deputies say.
According to the Iredell County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called to a home on Lunsford Lane in Union Grove about a possible suicide around 1 a.m. Monday. When deputies got to the home, they found a woman lying in the front yard with an apparent gunshot wound. Iredell County EMS arrived a short time later and pronounced the woman dead. She was identified as 40-year-old Jera Lee Wagoner of North Wilkesboro.
A witness in the house told deputies two men ran from the house before they got there. Deputies established a perimeter around the home and tried to locate the suspects. A few minutes later, a man came to the crime scene and told investigators his son called him and said he needed a ride.
The man told deputies that Gerald Isaac Lunsford, 42, shot the woman. Lunsford told the man he ran away because he was afraid he would be shot.
Lunsford came to the sheriff's office later Monday morning and spoke with detectives. He told investigators that he shot a rifle and ran away because he was a convicted felon. Based on witness testimony and evidence at the scene, Lunsford was arrested and charged with murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
He was taken to the Iredell County Jail and is being held without bond.
