'Domestic dispute' ended in stabbing

RALEIGH -- RALEIGH - Anthony Patrick Graves had a criminal past riddled with convictions for sexual offenses, but he was trying to get his life together and was a model tenant at the Southeast Raleigh apartment where he had been living since December, his landlord said today.

Graves, of 734 South State Street, was cooking chicken on his outdoor grill Monday night when his landlord, Steve Edwards of E&E Property Management happened to stop by for a quick visit.

“Everything seemed to be going well for him,” Edwards wrote today in an e-mail message to The News & Observer.

Hours after Edwards left, Graves was found inside his apartment by police at 9:45 p.m. He had been stabbed to death.

Police charged Travis Glenn McDougal, who had been staying with Graves since January, with murder in connection with the stabbing, authorities reported.

McDougal, 31, was still at the apartment when police arrived Monday night, police reported.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue declined to discuss the nature of the relationship between Graves and McDougal, but he said the two men had a domestic dispute.

"The dispute turned into a physical altercation, " Sughrue said. "The stabbing was the end result of the argument."

Edwards said today that McDougal typically “presented himself as ‘Tasha’ and was usually outfitted in a woman’s dress.

“He never looked happy,” Edwards said.

Edwards said his other tenants told him the two men began arguing Monday night because Graves had accused McDougal of taking his money to purchase drugs.

After the stabbing, the landlord hired a cleaning crew who spent two hours Tuesday cleaning up blood from the floor and walls of the apartment. Graves family arrived afterward and cleared most of his possessions from the residence, Edwards said.

Police transported McDougal to the Wake County jail, where he is being held without bail, jail officials reported.