COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The man accused of killing his mother and her friend, then leaving their bodies in a storage shed, pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree murder.
District Attorney Jon David said Justin Reynolds entered the plea in a Columbus County courtroom on Wednesday.
In 2014, the bodies of Jeannette Thut, 74, and Donna Gore, 55, were found behind a home in the 2300 block of Blacksmith Road in Bolton when deputies arrived to follow up on a missing persons report.
Two years later, in February of 2016, investigators arrested Gore’s son and his girlfriend, Megan Haynes, and charged them with murder.
Gore was strangled and Thut was stabbed about 15 times.
Family members told WWAY all four were living on the same Bolton property at the time of the murders.
Reynolds was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Haynes is scheduled to go on trial later this month.