ROBESON COUNTY, N.C. — Robeson County, North Carolina deputies ramped up efforts on Friday to search for the suspect in a deadly road rage shooting on I-95 that left one woman dead.
Multiple investigators have begun working the case and are viewing video footage from various locations along I-95 and along Fayetteville Road in Lumberton, according to Sheriff Burnis Wilkins.
“Why anyone would do this is beyond me,” Wilkins said. “It has been very disturbing to us all since arriving on the scene. To know the fear they must have faced as they awaited help and cars just zooming by on I95. Take a moment and imagine if this was you or your loved one.”
47-year-old Julie Eberly, of Manheim, Pa., was shot at about 11:15 a.m. on Thursday in the area near the weight station just north of Lumberton. She died at a hospital, Wilkins said. A passenger in the car with her was not injured.
Wilkins said Eberly and her husband celebrated their wedding anniversary Wednesday and were headed to Hilton Head Island.
Family members have arrived in Lumberton, the sheriff said, “and I ask that you continue to pray for them as they try and understand this.” Wilkins said he met with the husband and his parents Friday morning.
Deputies said the incident stemmed from a road rage incident in which the victim’s vehicle came too close to the suspect’s vehicle while trying to merge into a lane. The suspect vehicle pulled up to the passenger side of the vehicle and fired shots into the passenger door, hitting Eberly.
The sheriff’s office is asking for the public’s help to find a mid-2000’s model silver or grey Malibu or Impala that witnesses said was involved in the shooting. The car has dark tinted windows and chrome around the window frame. It was last seen driving south on I-95 toward exit 22.
“We want to find the coward that has caused this tragedy and we need the help of citizens in this county,” Wilkins pleaded. “If this is a local person, someone knows who this is without a thought. Someone knows the coward that drives a car as described and knows the person to carry a firearm. Who is it? Who can sleep knowing they did this?”
“Thankfully they had left their six children at home with grandparents, but now these kids have to live with the thought of their mother being murdered in such a cowardly and senseless way,” Wilkins said.
