Search warrant records later outlined an alleged financial motive and a chain of evidence extending from Simpson Park to the victims’ home.

GLEN ALPINE, N.C. — What began with suspicious signs beside a nature trail in Burke County developed within days into a double-homicide investigation, two arrests and the recovery of the remains of a married Morganton couple, according to law enforcement records and a search warrant described in local court reporting.

The investigation centers on the deaths of 31-year-old Raheim McClain Murray and his wife, 39-year-old Carla Janon Murray. Jamar Quarmaine Propst and Tosha Lee Lewis, both 36, have been indicted on two counts each of first-degree murder and felony conspiracy. A search warrant made public after their arrests contains investigators’ account of an alleged plan to kill the Murrays for money, but those allegations have not been proved in court. Both defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.

The first visible break in the case came July 20 near the nature trail at Simpson Park, at 618 Hennessee Street in Glen Alpine. According to the search warrant account reported by The Paper, a Burke County parks employee came across two shovels that had been covered with brush. The employee later noticed an area of disturbed ground about 90 feet off the trail, where trimmed branches appeared to conceal the site. The official sheriff’s account described the original call more generally as a report of “suspicious circumstances.” Deputies and Glen Alpine police responded, and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation joined the inquiry.

Investigators returned July 21 and found human remains near the trail, the Burke County Sheriff’s Office said. The remains were later identified as Raheim Murray. The search warrant account says investigators transported the remains for examination and that an autopsy identified him through fingerprints on July 23. At that point, according to the warrant as reported by The Paper, authorities had not received a missing-person report for him and had not been in direct contact with Carla Murray. That gap helped move the investigation beyond the trail and toward the couple’s home and recent movements.

Investigators obtained a warrant and searched the Murrays’ residence on July 24, according to the court-record account. The warrant narrative said .22-caliber projectiles were found inside. A Buick registered to Lewis was also located at the property. Later that day, Propst was interviewed by a Burke County detective, and much of the detailed sequence later disclosed publicly came from statements attributed to him in the search warrant. Those statements remain allegations and have not been tested at trial or established as facts by a verdict.

According to the warrant’s summary of Propst’s interview, Lewis and Carla Murray had previously worked together at a smoke shop and Lewis had learned that Carla received an inheritance of about $75,000. Propst allegedly told investigators that Lewis went to the Murrays’ home while presenting a dispute between herself and Propst as the reason she needed to stay there. The warrant alleges that after the Murrays fell asleep, Lewis left through a rear door and left it open, allowing Propst to enter. Investigators allege he then shot the couple while they were asleep. Authorities have not publicly released a medical examiner’s final findings in the material reviewed for this report.

The warrant also describes what investigators believe happened after the killings. Propst allegedly said the residence was cleaned and that the bodies were kept in Lewis’ Buick for at least a day before being taken to the Simpson Park area. He told investigators he spent two days burying the remains in a wooded area near the trail, according to the warrant account. Those allegations help explain why the homicide inquiry was initially focused on the park even though investigators later traced evidence back to the Murrays’ residence. The sheriff’s original public release did not disclose a suspected location or manner of the killings.

Investigators also alleged that the defendants sought access to the victims’ money and property. The warrant says the victims’ faces were used to unlock their phones and remove passcodes before the bodies were buried. It further alleges that $19,000 was transferred from Carla Murray’s Cash App account to Lewis’ account. Between the alleged killings and the arrests, Propst and Lewis moved into the Murrays’ residence with their four children, according to the warrant narrative. Lewis was also accused of using Carla’s phone and telling officers that the Murrays had gone to Myrtle Beach.

Vehicle information became another part of the investigative timeline. The search warrant said Lewis told investigators she had driven Carla to Myrtle Beach on July 18 in Carla’s silver Dodge Durango and that Raheim had traveled separately on a motorcycle. The warrant said automated license-plate camera information showed the Durango traveling to Myrtle Beach on July 18 and returning the next day. It also said Raheim’s motorcycle had last been recorded by a camera on July 6. Investigators believed Lewis continued to use Carla’s cellphone, although that device had not been recovered as of July 27, according to the reported warrant.

By July 25, investigators had obtained warrants charging Propst and Lewis with first-degree murder and felony conspiracy in Raheim Murray’s death. The sheriff’s office said both were taken into custody without incident in the early morning hours. Later that same day, investigators found a second set of human remains near the nature trail. The SBI was again asked to assist with processing the scene. Authorities then obtained a second murder charge and a second conspiracy charge against each defendant. The second remains were formally identified as Carla Murray on July 27 after her next of kin had been notified.

The scope of the case involved more than one police department. The Burke County Sheriff’s Office listed the SBI, FBI, Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, Glen Alpine Police Department, Morganton Department of Public Safety and Myrtle Beach Police Department among agencies involved. The search warrant reporting also described property collected during the investigation, including a hotel key, vehicle keys, pillows, a rubber glove, clothing and other items investigators considered potential evidence. The significance of any individual item will ultimately depend on what prosecutors can establish through admissible evidence rather than on its inclusion in a search inventory.

The case also placed Propst back before the courts while he was already facing an unrelated murder prosecution in neighboring Catawba County. He was one of four men indicted in 2023 in the 2008 death of Jeter Edward “Eddie” Greene Jr. in Long View. Authorities in that older case allege Greene was killed during a robbery. Propst had been released on a $100,000 bond in the Catawba County case before his arrest in the Murray investigation, according to prosecutors cited by WSOC. The older prosecution is separate from the Burke County case, and the pending charge in one case does not establish guilt in the other.

Propst and Lewis were initially held without bond on the Burke County charges. A grand jury indicted both on two murder counts and two felony conspiracy counts on Aug. 6, according to The Paper. That indictment moved the case into Superior Court and replaced an earlier probable-cause hearing schedule. The local report listed their next Superior Court appearance for Sept. 28. The sheriff’s office has continued to describe the investigation as ongoing, while the detailed motive, financial-transfer allegations and account of the killings remain claims contained in investigative records that prosecutors would have to prove in court.

Author note: Last updated Aug. 28, 2026.