Records show past charges, 911 calls involving Chatham County gunman, victims
Records show mental health concerns were raised before the murder-suicide Sunday that took the lives of six family members and the suspected gunman.
Larry Ray, 66, is suspected of shooting his wife Jeanie Ray, 67, at their home on Monclure-Flatwood Road in Moncure, a small, rural community in southeastern Chatham County.
Ray also is accused of fatally shooting Jeanie Ray’s niece, Nicole Sanderford, 39, and her husband John Paul Sanderford, 41, at their home across the road.
Jeanie Ray’s 93-year-old mother Helen Mason, who also lived across the road, was shot while having dinner with Ellis Mansfield, 73, and his wife Lisa Mansfield, 54, who also were killed.
A neighbor said the Mansfields, who lived about a mile north on Moncure-Flatwood Road, came over every Sunday to have dinner with Mason.
Sheriff’s investigators said Ray then killed himself.
The Sanderfords’ oldest son, who was in his second-story bedroom when his parents were shot, told a 911 operator that he heard six shots as he hid in a closet. He did not see the gunman, he said.
Family members said Monday they were in shock and declined to talk about it. On Wednesday, Chris Sanderford recalled how his brother and Nicole were “the perfect family.” He’s still coming to terms with what happened, he said.
Records obtained this week from Chatham County and the courthouse suggest there may have been indications of a problem.
Assault charges, 911 calls
Chatham County emergency records show 56 law enforcement and medical calls in the last decade to the homes of those involved in Sunday’s shootings and another house between Mason and the Sanderfords. Most were to the Ray, Mason and Mansfield homes.
Over two dozen calls were for medical issues, a disabled motorist, animal complaints, and deputies serving court papers.
There also were several 911 hang-up and wrong number calls, and multiple calls from different individuals asking to speak with an officer.
However, in the last six months, five calls to 911 referenced someone with mental health issues or came from the suspected gunman, including in September and in January, when Larry Ray called and asked to speak with a deputy. The records do not say why.
Then in mid-December, Charles Benner, who lived at 836 Moncure-Flatwood Road, in the home that Mason owned next to her own, called in reference to “psychiatric/abnormal behavior/suicide attempt.”
The next call came Feb. 10, when Jeanie Ray reported a “psychiatric/abnormal behavior/suicide attempt.” The entry shows she gave the operator Mason’s home address, and notes that the patient, who is not identified, refused further assistance.
Three days later, a caller identified as “Mag Hart” called in reference to a non-emergency “mental transport.” She also gave the operator Mason’s home address.
Records show the last two calls before the bodies were found came from the Sanderford home and from a woman who called 911 at 5:28 p.m. to report “mental disorder/behavioral problems.” That woman gave operators the address to the Ray home.
The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to email and phone requests for more information by press time Wednesday.
Court records also suggest there may have been long-simmering issues between Larry Ray and the families, who sought legal help from law enforcement at least twice in the last 30 years.
The first was when Mason’s husband, Robert Mason, took out a warrant in April 1993 accusing Ray of simple assault and misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon. Mason’s daughter Linda Childress, who lives next door to the Rays, was listed as a witness.
The second incident was in May 2003 when Joseph Sanderford Jr. — John Paul Sanderford’s cousin — took out a warrant charging Ray with simple assault.
The charges were dismissed both times.
If there had been any problems with Larry Ray, Chris Sanderford said, his brother, who was a private man, wouldn’t have mentioned it.
“He had everything going for him. It’s just a bad thing that it had to be an uncle to do this. You would never expect anything like that to happen,” he said. “They still don’t know why.”
Who were the victims?
Members of the Ray and Mansfield families did not return phone messages by the newspaper’s deadline Wednesday.
According to her obituary, Helen Mason was a Moncure native and a member of New Elam Christian Church, who “embodied the physical and mental toughness found in many of the North Carolina farming families during the Great Depression.”
Mason married U.S. Navy veteran Robert Mason in 1947 after he returned from World War II and had an “unyielding devotion to family and community,” her family said. Robert Mason died in 2005.
Jeanie Ray was one of Mason’s two daughters. According to her obituary, Jeanie Ray “was always the quiet, non-judgmental friend, sister, and co-worker who always seemed to bring calm to every storm.” She had two sons and loved horseback riding, the outdoors and her art, which included “wonderful sketches of the local river basin areas,” her family said.
She also had “a true skill for fine woodworking,” her family said.
Larry Ray, a native of Selmer, Tennessee, also loved the outdoors, according to his obituary. He was retired from Performance Fibers.
Public records show Lisa Mansfield moved to Moncure from Independence, Iowa, in 2006. She was a native of Iowa, according to her obituary, and had been married to Ellis Mansfield for 13 years. Both were members of New Elam Christian Church. Lisa Mansfield worked as an office manager at Center Heating and Air Conditioning in Sanford.
Ellis Mansfield grew up in Moncure and had been a general contractor and project manager with D&S Construction of Moncure for the last 20 years. He previously was a site manager with Bechtel Corp., an engineering, construction and project management company.
Wayne Stewart, owner of Electri-Tech in Garner, said he had worked on a couple of projects with Mansfield, but didn’t know him too well outside of work. They had just wrapped up a project at Foundation Medicine in Morrisville and were working last week on another Morrisville project, he said.
“He was a really, really nice guy,” Stewart said. “Every time I’d run into him, he was just a great guy. It was a tragic event, you know.”
Sanderfords loved family
John and Nicole Sanderford had been married at least 18 years, according to the staff page at Darren G. Koch Family and Cosmetic Dentistry in Cary, where Nicole Sanderford worked.
She had been there since 2004 as a dental assistant and earned her certification in 2005, her entry says. She also had worked occasionally as an intraoral photographer in clinical dental licensing exams with the Council of Interstate Testing Agencies.
“In her free time, she enjoys swimming and being on the beach,” it said. “She loves summers, has never gotten a ticket, and is terrified of spiders!”
John Sanderford was born in Goldsboro, the youngest of four brothers and two sisters, Chris Sanderford said, but grew up in Moncure.
He recalled the time that he and John, whom he called “Paulie,” went hunting in the late ‘90s, and John got charged with firelighting. He was about 16 at the time, Chris Sanderford said.
“We shot a deer at night one night. Just out of luck, the law got us,” he said. “I think that was the first and only time he’d ever been in trouble in his life.”
John Sanderford was his own man, Chris Sanderford said. After marrying Nicole, he was more serious about saving money and became a stay-at-home dad who bought and sold merchandise — pallets, clothing, “whatever was selling” — online, Chris Sanderford said.
He had worked in the family logging business at Sanderford and Sons for several years until his father, John Paul Sanderford Sr., retired.
John and Nicole Sanderford had “the perfect family” and “two perfect kids,” Chris Sanderford said. The family “enjoyed life,” spending a lot of time at home and going to the beach in the summer, he said. The boys played baseball.
“(John) was a very, very funny fella. He just liked to make everybody laugh,” he said. “And he was all into the family. Any kind of family event, that was Paulie. That was his thing. It wasn’t going out partying or doing nothing like that. It was family.”
The boys are staying with their grandparents now, Sanderford said. A care fund has been set up to help provide for them. Donations can be made at any Wells Fargo bank nationwide to “Flatwood Boys Stay Strong.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 5:03 PM.
