Body found in SC was missing NC man, coroner says. Now two people are arrested
The body of a missing North Carolina man was recently found in South Carolina and two people have been arrested, according to the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office.
On Nov. 20, the body of 33-year-old Mocksville, North Carolina, resident Jonathan Charles Shores was found in a wooded area near Newberry Road, the Fairfield County Coroner’s Office said. That’s in a part of Winnsboro between I-26 and I-77, and it’s about 130 miles from Mocksville, which is in Davidson County, North Carolina.
The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said it was working with members of the Davidson County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office to find Shores, who was believed to have been shot and killed Nov. 9 — in Lexington, N.C. His remains were left by two people driving through South Carolina, before they continued on to Georgia, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
It appears that South Carolina’s only connection to Shores’ death is that it was where his body was dumped by 26-year-old Jose Guadalupe Lopez and his 31-year-old girlfriend Brennan Summer Alexander, Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery said in a news release.
Lopez is accused of shooting Shores then leaving North Carolina in the victim’s vehicle, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said. Alexander joined Lopez in the car, and neither of them provided aid to the victim nor reported the shooting to law enforcement, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
There was no word on a motive for the shooting, or what, if any, connection Shores had to Lopez or Alexander prior to the gunfire.
Lopez was taken into custody in Richmond County, Georgia, where he’s being held until extradition back to North Carolina will be arranged, the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said. Lopez, a convicted felon, was taken into custody Nov. 10 in Georgia on a possession of a firearm by a felon charge, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said. At that time, Shores had not yet been reported missing, and deputies released the vehicle to Alexander.
On Nov. 11, Shores was reported missing in Davidson County by his family, the coroner’s office said.
That was the same day that Alexander was arrested in Columbia County, Georgia, by members of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office for a hit-and-run collision while driving Shores’ vehicle, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies noted that the vehicle was associated with an active missing person investigation, and a possible bullet hole and biological evidence were discovered inside the vehicle, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office seized the vehicle and Alexander was booked into the Columbia County Jail, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
In North Carolina, Lopez is facing a first-degree murder charge in addition to counts of conceal/fail to report death, felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and two counts of felony robbery with a dangerous weapon, law enforcement said.
Alexander will be charged with accessory after the fact in multiple counts in North Carolina, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. Like Lopez, Alexander is waiting to be extradited back to North Carolina.
Based on evidence and investigative work, detectives developed a timeline that placed Lopez and Alexander along with the victim’s body traveling through Fairfield County during the early morning hours of Nov. 10, the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said. That’s when their counterparts from Davidson County asked the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office for help in searching areas of interest in South Carolina.
A canvas of local camera systems and their surveillance footage corroborated Davidson County’s timeline of movements in the Winnsboro area on Nov. 10.
Despite the arrests, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said it’s continuing to investigate the shooting, along with the Fairfield County Coroner’s Office.
“Partnerships and thorough forensic and digital investigative work were essential in locating Mr. Shores and advancing this investigation,” Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons said in a news release.
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This story was originally published November 25, 2025 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Body found in SC was missing NC man, coroner says. Now two people are arrested."
