The case centered on a 2024 welfare check that led officers to remains buried behind the victim’s home.

CLEVELAND, N.C. — A North Carolina man was sentenced March 19 to 51 to 63 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of his 72-year-old uncle, whose remains were found in the backyard of his Cleveland home in August 2024.

Stephen Eric Buchanan, 40, also pleaded guilty to concealment of death, possession of a firearm by a felon and four counts of obtaining property by false pretense, closing the criminal case after a year and a half of investigation and court proceedings. The plea brought a formal end to one of Rowan County’s more disturbing recent homicide cases, one that drew attention because the victim’s body was found on his own property and because investigators said Buchanan had tried to hide what happened.

The case began on Aug. 4, 2024, when officers with the Cleveland Police Department conducted a welfare check at 105 Johnstone Road, the home of Charles Knight. What they found turned a missing-person concern into a homicide investigation. Officers located Knight’s remains in the backyard, and later reporting said part of the remains had been partially buried while other remains were recovered from a burn pit on the property. The address sits in Cleveland, a small Rowan County town north of Charlotte, and the discovery quickly drew the involvement of state investigators. Within days, authorities had identified Buchanan, Knight’s nephew, as their main suspect. Court reporting later showed that a warrant followed four days after the welfare check, marking the point at which the case shifted from a death investigation to an active manhunt.

As authorities worked through the early stages of the case, a picture emerged of suspicious activity around Knight’s property and belongings. Buchanan’s brother said in a 2024 interview that he had grown alarmed after seeing Buchanan driving Knight’s car and after hearing from a neighbor about a fire that burned for several days. He said Buchanan told him their uncle was in Louisiana, but the explanation did not hold up. The brother also said Buchanan had been going to yard sales and selling some of Knight’s things. Those details later fit with the four false-pretense charges included in the plea. Investigators have not publicly laid out a complete narrative in court filings that explain exactly how the killing happened, and officials have not publicly established a motive. The victim’s cause of death also has not been clearly detailed in the public reporting that followed the plea.

The arrest came outside North Carolina. Cleveland police said in August 2024 that Buchanan had been taken into custody in South Carolina on outstanding warrants and was being held in York County while awaiting extradition. A later Salisbury Post report said Cleveland officers brought him back to Rowan County, where he was served with multiple new criminal charges as well as probation-related matters. By the time the case reached its end in Superior Court, Buchanan had pleaded guilty to seven charges tied to the homicide and the handling of Knight’s property. The firearm count suggested prosecutors were prepared to show Buchanan possessed a gun despite a prior felony record. Even so, the plea to second-degree murder meant the case ended without a trial that might have produced a fuller public account of the killing.

The sentencing gave the case a legal finish, but not a complete public explanation. Rowan County Superior Court Judge Michael S. Adkins imposed the 51-to-63-year term after accepting the plea. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, which took the lead on the homicide case, said the result reflected joint work by the SBI, the Cleveland Police Department and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office. In a statement released after sentencing, the agency said the investigation had helped bring closure to the victim’s family. That language captured the official view of the outcome, though some of the most basic questions remain open in public: why Knight was killed, what exactly happened before his remains were found and what evidence finally pushed the case to a plea rather than a contested trial.

The facts that are public leave a stark scene. A 72-year-old man was found dead behind his own home after relatives and neighbors became concerned, and his nephew eventually admitted guilt to murder and concealment charges. The home on Johnstone Road, once just a family residence in a quiet small town, became the center of a case that mixed violent death, buried remains, a burn pit and allegations that the victim’s property was used after he disappeared. The case also underscored how family members often become key witnesses in homicide investigations. Here, the concern raised by a brother and by neighbors appears to have helped bring police to the property where the investigation broke open.

With the guilty plea entered and sentence imposed, Buchanan now begins serving a prison term that could keep him incarcerated for decades. As of April 13, 2026, no further major public hearing had been highlighted in local reporting, and the case appears to have moved from investigation to sentence enforcement.

Author note: Last updated April 13, 2026.