Halifax County Sheriff Wes Tripp today released the names of the victims in the Glenview community who died of multiple gunshot wounds at the Harris’s house.

They were Mr. Whitley, 76; his wife, Peggy, 67; Janice Harris, 72, and her husband James.

For Locke the old limousine Mr. Whitley owned spoke of his nature.

Mr. Whitley, a retired farmer, drove the limo to a Tarboro rest home to pick up Enfield residents staying there and bring them back home for a baptist church ice cream social.

“They were great people,” said Locke, who is the town’s volunteer fire department chief.

The Whitley’s and Harris’s had been longtime friends, Locke recalled, and became closer when the Whitley’s house burned in 2000. “The Harris’s let them stay with them. To open up your house to another family for about seven or eight months, you’ve got to be really close to do that.”

(A $7,000 reward has been established for information leading to an arrest in the case. Anyone with information is encouraged to call the sheriff’s office at 252-583-8201, Crimestoppers at 252-583-4444 or the SBI at 919-779-8188)

The Harris’s and Whitley’s had a friendly card game every Sunday night, Locke said.  

Mrs. Whitley helped on Downtown Enfield Restoration and Preservation. “They were just fine people, just good people,” Locke said.

Locke said there was much hurt, anger and people upset over what happened to the four victims. “You hear about it on TV. You don’t think it can happen in your community.”

Mr. Harris was a retired gunsmith, Jeffrey Short said. “He was an excellent gunsmith for years. He knew old shotguns very well.”

Visits to Mr. Harris, who was known all around for his gunsmithing, were not short stays, Short said. “He would end up talking to people for two hours.”

Mr. Whitley, Short said, was well renowned. “There was not a bad bone in his body.”

Short connected with Mr. Harris over guns. Mr. Whitley loved his fishing club. “It’s just heartbreaking something like this can come into our community. The overall feeling is it puts the thought in mind it puts all families in panic mode, they wonder who did it. Everyone goes into defense mode. Everyone goes in a different mindset. I just hope justice is served. There’s cruel people in the world.”

Robin Lancaster described Mr. Whitley as an “outstanding guy in the community. He never met a stranger and was probably the modern day farmer from Paul Harvey. You couldn’t ask for a finer family. They were community friendly, true Americans.”

Like Short said of Mr. Harris, Lancaster said Mr. Whitley was the same way when it came to conversations. “I never heard him say a bad word about anybody. They were all-American people. That area’s lost a really good person in the community.”