A new search for the missing ‘Barbecue Man,’ who disappeared 14 years ago
The searchers marched through mud and ankle-deep water, dragging rakes and shovels over a decade of dirt, hunting for the smallest hint of Daniel Moses.
Fourteen years ago, the man known as “The Barbecue Man” thanks to his home-grilled chicken disappeared from the tiny town of Rich Square, leaving his car in the driveway, his air-conditioner running and his tools on the grill.
Since then, his sister Shelia Moses has relentlessly prodded investigators to keep looking for the retired trucker, known for delivering his chicken around rural Northampton County — a community of only 17,000 people spread out over miles of swampy farmland.
For years, the only clue his sister could cling to was a witness who came forward to say she saw a car’s trunk pop open when it bounced over a country bridge, and a foot pop out wearing a tube sock and white sneaker — Daniel Moses’ preferred style.
But a fresh tip — left undisclosed Monday — led searchers back to the muddy woods around that bridge on Cumbo Road, where they spent all day looking for bones, clothing or even the herringbone necklace Moses was known to wear.
“I know they consider it a cold case,” said his sister, “but my head is not cold. This case is not cold till I’m dead. I’ll be out here in a wheelchair.”
Monday’s search brought out 15 people from North Carolina fire and emergency crews along with a K-9 police dog, who followed behind as they turned up ground looking for traces of the missing man.
“They could be buried, they could be on the surface,” said Walter Brown, a retired State Bureau of Investigation agent working with the Northampton sheriff. “We don’t know exactly what.”
Two years ago, another crew hunted around a nearby state prison, combing through thick underbrush and sticker bushes. But that search produced little more than ankle scratches, leaving Shelia Moses to continue her hounding.
“That’s all I can do: keep pushing the needle. I’m so weary. It’s the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about at night. Imagine what that does to the heart.”
Shelia Moses grew up in Rich Square, but she long ago left for the Washington area, where she has found success as a writer of both young adult fiction and a biography of Dick Gregory, which she co-wrote along with the civil rights icon.
In her books, Shelia Moses describes her grandfather’s tin-roofed house as the place for chicken pot pie on Sunday nights, for swapping stories with uncles on the front porch, for staring off into the cotton fields from the safety of a rocking chair.
Both her older brother, who was 59 when he vanished in 2011, and the road where he lived next to his mother have turned up in her fiction, especially “The Legend of Buddy Bush,” based loosely on her rural childhood.
Daniel Moses was a big man, standing 6-foot-3, and well-schooled in karate, meaning whoever killed him would have met with a fight first.
He lived next door to his elderly mother, and he allowed few visitors to his small wooden house, preferring to deliver his chicken to customers.
The family first realized he was missing when the house caught fire and burned about halfway down. But Shelia Moses no longer thinks the fire happened to conceal evidence, but rather that it was old and unattended after her brother disappeared.
She added she has heard from another witness who saw both her brother and his girlfriend riding bicycles over the Cumbo Road bridge, and that Daniel Moses reportedly flagged them down to ask if they wanted any chicken, accepting a ride instead.
But she doubts much of that story.
Still, she said, “If that bridge could talk.”
As she spoke, the searchers pushed through the mud maybe 100 yards from the swamp the bridge passes over. They kept close to Cumbo Road, knowing it would take a lot to move such a large man, but far enough into the woods to where a body could have been concealed.
After 14 years, the land has seen numerous storms and work from log trucks, which left deep tire tracks in the mud.
Their primary search location covered roughly 2 acres and took 15 people several hours to cover, walking 5 feet apart. By day’s end, they found only dirt and water.
So Shelia Moses will press on.
In the time since her brother vanished, Shelia Moses has also lost her mother and sister, who never got the peace that could have come from knowing the truth.
“I don’t mind them being in glory because I know where they are,” she said. “I’m going to bring my brother home.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 3:32 PM.