Man charged in 1972 rape, murder dies at Central Prison, Johnston sheriff says

A Johnston County inmate being held at Central Prison in Raleigh due to “medical conditions” has died, according to the county sheriff’s office.

Larry Joe Scott, 68, faced charges of first degree murder, rape and kidnapping in the death of Bonnie Neighbors in 1972.

He died Friday, authorities said. Officials did not provide a cause of death.

Neighbors, 33, had been found bound and fatally shot after going to pick up her oldest son from school in December 1972, The News & Observer previously reported. Her infant son was found alive next to her.

Scott, who was awaiting trial, lived in Benson at the time of the crime, authorities said previously.

He had been sent to the Emergency Department at Johnston Medical Center last month, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell and District Attorney Susan Doyle said in a joint news release Monday.

From there, he was transferred to UNC Hospital at Chapel Hill, before being moved to Central Prison in Raleigh for “safekeeping.”

Scott’s arrest came in Florida in 2019, decades after Neighbors’s death. He was arrested following a 12-year investigation that began when the Sheriff’s Office reopened the case in 2007.

Authorities said DNA from the crime scene matched Scott’s, and his fingerprints were found inside the victim’s car, according to the news release.

His trial had been set for August.

“We were confident and ready for trial,” Doyle said in the release.

“I hope the family can find some closure, knowing that we got the right man,” Bizzell added.

The News & Observer has requested further information about Scott’s death.

This story was originally published April 18, 2022 at 1:47 PM.