Investigators said a 41-year-old man was found dead with multiple shotgun wounds after a 5:09 a.m. call from the home.

MORAVIAN FALLS, N.C. — A North Carolina woman was charged with first-degree murder after deputies said they found her boyfriend dead from multiple gunshot wounds inside a home in Wilkes County before dawn on Feb. 17. The woman told authorities the shooting happened while she was cleaning a shotgun.

Authorities say the case quickly shifted from an alleged accident to a homicide investigation because of the victim’s injuries, the number of reported blasts and the early evidence collected at the scene. Megan Jane Thomas, 39, was jailed without bond after the death of Jason Gregory Olney, 41, of North Wilkesboro. The Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office said the case remains under investigation with help from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, leaving major questions about motive, what happened inside the home and what evidence prosecutors will rely on as the case moves forward.

Deputies were sent to Dogwood Road Extension in the Brushy Mountain community at about 5:09 a.m. Tuesday after a reported shooting at Thomas’ residence. When they arrived, they found Olney inside the home with multiple gunshot wounds, according to law enforcement accounts released after the arrest. Emergency medical personnel responded, but Olney was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators identified Thomas, 39, as the caller and took her into custody later that morning. Authorities said Thomas initially claimed she shot Olney while cleaning a shotgun inside the house. But investigators did not treat the death as an accident for long. In the charging documents, the sheriff’s office alleged Thomas “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously” killed Olney with malice aforethought, language that supported the first-degree murder charge filed the same day.

Officials have released only a limited public account of what they believe happened inside the home, but several details in the early record point to why the case was charged so aggressively. Deputies said Olney had multiple gunshot wounds, not a single wound. A nearby resident also reported hearing at least three blasts, a detail that undercut the account that the weapon simply fired while it was being cleaned. The sheriff’s office has not publicly described where inside the home Olney was found, whether he was standing, sitting or asleep, or whether investigators recovered shell casings, blood-spatter evidence or signs of an argument. They also have not said whether Thomas gave a formal statement beyond her initial explanation. Major Logan Kerr, speaking for the sheriff’s office in statements released after the arrest, said the investigation is active and ongoing. The SBI’s involvement signals that crime-scene processing and forensic review are likely to play a central role as prosecutors build the case.

The killing shook a sparsely populated part of Wilkes County where violent crime of this kind does not often draw statewide attention. Moravian Falls is a small community in the foothills of the Brushy Mountains, west of Winston-Salem and north of Charlotte, with winding roads, scattered homes and long stretches of rural property between them. In that setting, a burst of gunfire before sunrise would have been hard to miss. Authorities said both Thomas and Olney were from nearby North Wilkesboro, suggesting a case rooted in local relationships rather than strangers crossing paths. The sheriff’s office has described them as being in a dating relationship. That fact is important to the case even though investigators have not announced any separate domestic violence counts, because it frames how prosecutors may later present the history between the two and whether there were prior disputes, threats or calls for service. So far, no public record released by authorities has described earlier complaints between the couple.

For now, the criminal case is at its earliest stage. Thomas was booked into the Wilkes County jail on a first-degree murder charge and held without bond pending a judge’s review. A release order filed after her arrest said she did not have family ties to the area, was unemployed and lacked current financial resources. The same order said she had no known prior criminal history, while also noting that little was publicly known at that point about any mental health issues. Under North Carolina procedure, a first-degree murder prosecution can move from district court into superior court after probable-cause steps or indictment, and prosecutors are not required to disclose all of their evidence at the moment of arrest. That means the public record may remain thin until future hearings, filings or a grand jury action bring more detail into the open. The sheriff’s office has not announced any additional charges, and no defense account beyond the initial claim of an accidental shooting had been laid out publicly as of March 17.

Even with the major facts established, many of the story’s most important pieces are still missing. Investigators have not publicly said how long Thomas and Olney had been together, who else may have been at or near the home that morning, whether either person had been drinking or using drugs, or whether there were text messages, calls or surveillance records that could help reconstruct the final hours before Olney was shot. They also have not released autopsy findings that could show firing distance, wound paths or the order of shots. Those details often become critical in cases where a suspect claims a gun fired by mistake. In rural homicide cases, prosecutors frequently depend on forensic evidence and statements from neighbors to establish timing and intent, especially when the only surviving person inside a home is the accused. Here, the report of several blasts and the allegation of multiple wounds are likely to be central facts whenever the case reaches a courtroom.

Neighbors in the Brushy Mountain area woke to flashing lights, patrol vehicles and the sudden closure of an otherwise quiet stretch of road as deputies secured the scene. By later in the day, Thomas’ booking photo had circulated across local and regional news outlets, while residents were left with few official answers beyond the bare outline of a predawn killing. Law enforcement officials kept their public statements brief and careful, avoiding speculation about motive or any argument that may have come first. That restraint is common in the opening days of a homicide case, when investigators are still interviewing witnesses and waiting on laboratory results. Still, the early contrast between Thomas’ explanation and the charge filed against her gave the case unusual force. In practical terms, the dispute now centers on whether prosecutors can prove intent rather than carelessness, and whether the physical evidence inside the house tells a story that a jury will believe.

The case remained open on March 17, with Thomas jailed on the murder charge and investigators yet to release a fuller account of what led to Olney’s death. The next major milestone is expected to come through court proceedings or a new filing that spells out the evidence in greater detail.