Family searching for answers after son fatally shoots girlfriend and self

Three days after police say David Dietrich Holder fatally shot his girlfriend and wounded her brother before turning the gun on himself, his parents arrived in the Triangle to make funeral arrangements, talk with detectives and hire an attorney to handle their son’s estate.

Holder’s stepfather, Robert Forbes of Boone, said his stepson worked the past seven years as a microbiologist at Pfizer.

“Davey didn’t smoke or drink, was never in trouble with the law, always worked hard,” Forbes said in an email to The News & Observer on Friday. “All he wanted out of life was to find that someone to marry and have a child.”

Holder’s parents said they are mystified by what happened Tuesday night at the West Durham home of Holder’s girlfriend, Raluca Iosif, an internationally acclaimed public health advocate. Iosif worked as a senior program development manager for IntraHealth International, a public health agency in Chapel Hill.

Her colleagues described the 40-year-old woman as a hard worker and a fun person with a bright spirit, who had helped develop health care projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia while working with the agency for the past seven years.

Just before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, emergency dispatchers received nearly a half-dozen calls from residents in the 1000 block of Oakland Avenue who reported hearing gunshots.

When police arrived, they found Raluca Iosif and Holder both dead from gunshot wounds. Investigators say Holder also shot the slain woman’s younger brother, Razvaiya A. Iosif. Emergency workers rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

Holder and Raluca Iosif were both 40. Razvaiya Iosif, 38, from Romania, was visiting his sister to celebrate her birthday.

Robert Forbes said Holder called his mother Tuesday night, about 30 minutes before gunfire was reported.

“She had left her phone downstairs,” Forbes said. “He hadn’t left a message.”

Forbes said his stepson and Raluca Iosif had been dating for only about three months. They found out about her in August, when Holder called and said he was seeing someone new. They never met her.

“When he called his mom and told her about Luca he was pretty excited. We were excited for him,” Forbes said. “They were talking about marriage.”

State records show that Holder grew up in New Hanover County. His cousin, Sabrina Pace, in an email to the N&O on Friday, said she had many happy memories of him.

“He was so happy with Raluca and even talked marriage,” she wrote. “David was a wonderful person, as well, and always willing to help others. He had a great job and was making a life of his own. He loved and adored his family and friends. ... I want him to be remembered as a human being and not painted as a ‘murderer.’”

Forbes said Holder earned a bachelor of science degree in the late 1990s from N.C. State University.

Police have not made public what may have led to the shootings.

“Emotions can take you to a dark place,” Forbes said. “That’s all we can assume. We didn’t talk to him as things were unfolding in his mind. Something happened.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Family searching for answers after son fatally shoots girlfriend and self."