One of two men accused of killing a Granville County couple earlier this year fashioned his bed sheet into a rope to hang himself at Raleigh’s Central Prison on Tuesday, according to prison officials.
A corrections officer found Edward Watson Campbell, 54, unresponsive in his cell at 2:28 p.m. Tuesday, according to an incident report made public Wednesday by the state Department of Public Safety.
Prison medical staff treated Campbell at the prison hospital before he was taken to WakeMed in Raleigh by EMS. At 6:30 p.m., prison officials were told that Campbell had died.
Campbell was last seen alive in his cell at 1:27 p.m., according to the incident report.
Campbell and his son, Eric Alexander Campbell, 21, were both charged with two counts of first-degree murder, robbery and several other charges in connection with the deaths of Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife Dora Faulkner, 62, in early January.
The Faulkners were reported missing when their home north of Oxford burned in early January. Authorities said they found the couple’s bodies in a pickup truck driven by Edward Campbell in Lewisburg, W.Va. Police had pulled over Campbell’s son, who was driving an SUV with North Carolina plates that indicated it had been stolen, and authorities say the elder Campbell stopped and fired at the officers, wounding both of them.
Prison spokesman Keith Acree said medical confidentiality policies prohibit state officials from disclosing if Campbell had been on suicide watch, or if his son, who is also being held at Central Prison, is currently on suicide watch.
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