Investigators say the suspect fled North Carolina after two people were shot dead at a home in the Woodlake community and was arrested later the same day in Ohio.

VASS, N.C. — A 25-year-old Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend at a home in Moore County on Valentine’s Day has been returned to North Carolina, where he is being held without bond on two murder charges.

Authorities say the case centers on the deaths of Kateryna Tovmash, 21, a Ukrainian refugee living in Vass, and Matthew Wade, 28, an active-duty Army soldier stationed at Fort Bragg. The killings quickly drew attention across North Carolina and beyond because of the victims’ backgrounds, the speed of the manhunt and the allegations that the suspect, Caleb Hayden Fosnaugh, crossed state lines before and after the shooting. The investigation is now moving from the search phase to court proceedings, with prosecutors and defense lawyers beginning to shape the next stage of the case.

Deputies were called to a home on Daphne Lane in the Woodlake community around 7:45 a.m. on Feb. 14 after a report of a shooting. When they arrived, investigators said, they found Tovmash and Wade dead inside the residence. By later that day, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office had identified Fosnaugh, 25, as the suspect and announced charges of two counts of murder and felony breaking and entering. Investigators said Fosnaugh had previously been in a relationship with Tovmash while both were living in Ohio. Sheriff’s investigators also said he left the area before deputies arrived and was believed to be heading back toward Ohio. Law enforcement agencies in North Carolina and Ohio coordinated through the day, and Fosnaugh was arrested in Coshocton County, Ohio, without incident. “He loved making people laugh, and he was very good at it,” Wade’s sister, Courtney Miller, said as his family remembered him in the first days after the killings.

Officials have released only a limited account of what happened inside the home, and some details remain unclear. Investigators have said the shooting happened at Tovmash’s residence in the Woodlake section of Vass, a quiet community south of Raleigh. They have identified the dead as Tovmash, of Vass, and Wade, of Hamilton, Mississippi. Wade was serving in the Army at Fort Bragg, and relatives told local reporters he and Tovmash had recently begun dating and were living together while he was stationed there. Authorities say Fosnaugh was Tovmash’s former boyfriend and that the two had a prior relationship in Ohio, but the sheriff’s office has not publicly laid out a full motive. It also has not publicly answered several other questions, including whether anyone else inside the home witnessed the shooting, what evidence investigators recovered at the scene, or whether prosecutors will seek any additional charges as the case develops.

The deaths struck several communities at once. In North Carolina, the case landed heavily in Moore County, where deputies described a burst of violence inside a residential neighborhood on a holiday morning. In Mississippi, Wade’s family mourned a soldier they said had long wanted to serve. His obituary identified him as Army Specialist Matthew Ryan Wade, born in Columbus, Mississippi, and a graduate of Hamilton High School. In the Ukrainian community, friends spoke about Tovmash’s path to the United States after Russia’s invasion forced families from their homes. A childhood friend, Kiril Pryshchepchuk, said they had grown up in the same city, attended the same school and church, and later both fled Ukraine. Friends and relatives said Tovmash, known to some as Kate, had been helping care for younger siblings after her family resettled. A fundraiser created for her family later said funeral and transportation costs had been met and that remaining money would go to her mother, Olena Tovmash Brown.

The legal case advanced quickly after the arrest. Authorities first jailed Fosnaugh in Ohio while North Carolina investigators prepared to bring him back to Moore County. By Feb. 18, officials said he had waived extradition and was returned to North Carolina. In his first appearance in Moore County District Court, a judge assigned him a capital defender and ordered that he be held without bond. Court reporting from the hearing said defense lawyers asked the judge to formally require investigators and prosecutors to preserve all evidence connected to the case, a routine but significant step in a homicide prosecution where forensic records, digital material and witness statements may become central later. As of the latest public update, Fosnaugh’s next court date was set for March 11. Prosecutors have not publicly announced whether they will pursue an indictment beyond the initial charges already filed, and investigators have said little about what additional evidence review, interviews or testing remains underway.

In the weeks since the shootings, the public picture of the victims has come mostly through grieving relatives, friends and community members. Wade’s sister, Megan Wade, said he “always dreamed of joining the military” and had been excited about the year ahead. Friends speaking about Tovmash described a young woman who had survived one kind of upheaval only to die in another. Pryshchepchuk told local television reporters that his last conversation with her stayed with him because “she was happy.” Those memories have sharpened the contrast between the ordinary setting of the case and its national reach: a home in a gated Moore County neighborhood, an Army post connection, a refugee family displaced by war, and an arrest hundreds of miles away by evening. For investigators, those voices do not answer the open questions about motive and planning. For the families, they have become the clearest public record so far of the lives that were cut short.

Fosnaugh remains jailed in Moore County as the homicide case moves forward. The next public milestone is his scheduled March 11 court date, when the case is expected to return to court and prosecutors may offer a clearer picture of how they plan to proceed.