LUMBERTON — A Lumberton man has been charged with a three-year-old murder after law enforcement officials Saturday removed human remains that had been entombed inside a well.
Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said Dwayne Wesley Oxendine, 27, of Pine Tree Road, confessed to the murder of Bruce Lee Hunt, of 370 Ferenwood Circle, Lumberton. Hunt was 35 years old when he was reported missing on April 26, 2010, by his mother, Elizabeth Locklear, and his stepmother, Anita Hunt.
Sealey said that after Hunt was reported missing, the Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation followed several leads, but no arrest was ever made. The Sheriff’s Office, according to Sealey, got a break recently when Oxendine, apparently feeling guilt over the murder, began talking to people about his involvement, and that led to a tip being called in to the Sheriff’s Office.
Sealey said Oxendine was arrested Friday at a graveyard, where he was found reading a Bible and quoting scripture. Sealey described Oxendine as “very emotional” when he was taken into custody.
“I think this thing must have bothered him for a while,” Sealey said.
The sheriff said Oxendine confessed to killing Hunt while being questioned and was charged with second-degree murder on the advice of the district attorney’s office. He was placed in the county jail under $50,000 bail. Sealey said there is a possibility the charge could be upgraded.
According to Sealey, Oxendine told law enforcement officials where Hunt’s body could be found. He said that officers on Saturday went to the well, which had been sealed with concrete, and recovered human remains from a pipe that was inside the well.
He said the body would be sent to the state Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy to confirm that it is Hunt’s and to determine the cause of death.
Sealey did not want to release a motive.
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