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Strickland got plenty of freedom. As a child, he would roam the woods for hours, creating secret clubs with friends and racing his dirt bike on trails his uncle had cleared, said friends and his father.

At the age of 10 or 11, after learning a neighbor was pregnant with twins, he started tending to her, Beskind said. Strickland raided his parents' freezer and refrigerator of meat and vegetables each week, then set off down the road to cook dinner for her.

His care for people didn't fade as he grew older. On a family vacation in France this summer, Strickland befriended a homeless man whom a waiter shooed out of the restaurant where the Stricklands dined, his father said.

"Peyton asked if he could help this person with food," Don Strickland said. "Over the next three days that we were there, Peyton went to the grocery store around the corner and bought orange juice, bagels and other food items, and took them to the homeless person."

Friends say Strickland paid no attention to age and background when making friends.

This year, he got to know Wayne Wilson, 62, who was hired to help him paint the motorboat.

"He didn't see black and white; he didn't see young and old. He saw friends," said Wilson, who kept in touch with Strickland by offering fishing tips over the summer.

Strickland was always surrounded by friends. A rotating crew of boys and girls gravitated to the Stricklands' home, swimming in the family's pool and skateboarding on the half-pipe Strickland built there years ago.

Life in Wilmington

In Wilmington, Strickland was the center of his many social circles. His roommates were linked through him. Drew Gardner went to the Hill Center and Jordan High with him. Mike Rhoton had graduated from Jordan a year before. Braden Riley of Apex -- who also has been charged in the PlayStation robbery and assault -- became tight with Strickland after meeting him through a mutual friend, his father said.

The boys rented a modest brick house on Long Leaf Acres Drive, a quiet street where a dozen or more families have lived for decades. They partied like it was a fraternity house, neighbors have said, and they weren't welcome additions. Cops went there three times this fall to order them to turn down their music, records show.

The night Strickland died, police seized several marijuana pipes. Left behind were a dozen or so empty liquor bottles on the kitchen counter; crushed Budweiser cans littered the yard.

Typical teen stuff, friends of Strickland's family say.

"He was certainly no bad seed headed down the wrong path," Moore said. "He was a teenager -- stretching and testing."

Don Strickland said he never knew his son to have a problem with drugs or alcohol.

In Wilmington, Strickland thrived as a student. In his Cape Fear welding workshops four nights a week, Strickland wowed his welding instructor.

"He was a natural," said Rick West, who has taught welding for 30 years. "I could show him something once, and he'd be able to do it."

He also got in trouble in Wilmington. The last day of August, he came to blows with a UNCW student he met at a party. The student complained to police in September that Strickland had broken his jaw.

Strickland told his father that the boy shoved him first, Don Strickland said. He made his son handle the mess on his own. Strickland turned himself in to Wilmington police after an officer, B.W. Sommer, called to tell him he was wanted, Don Strickland said. When Strickland died, Sommer's card was tucked in his wallet.

Don Strickland said the matter was supposed to be squared away in court this month. The district attorney had agreed to delay prosecution if Strickland paid the other young man's medical bills.

As for the stolen PlayStations, Don Strickland didn't want to comment because two of his son's friends still have those charges lodged against them.

According to a search warrant, police suspected Strickland when an anonymous tipster identified him after watching a surveillance video of the Wal-Mart parking lot the night of the robbery. Police think Strickland and his two friends tailed Justin Raines, a UNCW student from Apex, from the lot back to his dorm, the warrant said.

When police called on Strickland the night he died, he and his roommate Rhoton were hanging out in the living room, playing a Tiger Woods golf video game.

This wasn't Strickland's style. He preferred the outdoors and rarely sat in front of a TV, his father said.

But Strickland had planned to get out the next day and was preparing for a major fishing expedition.

In his bedroom off the kitchen, the next day's fishing report flashed across his computer screen.

It promised easy waves and crisp winds. Perfect for landing speckled trout, flounder and puppy drum.

(News researchers Denise Jones and Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)

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