Cold Case: 2 men found dead at North Carolina pawnshop

UPDATE: Havelock police say new developments in DNA technology have allowed them to submit items for evidence analysis to the NC State Crime Laboratory. On Thursday, “Based on information received, we conducted an extensive item search for evidence that was believed to have been disposed of after the robbery. The article search took place in the area of Greenfield
Heights Blvd. in Havelock, N.C. by City of Havelock Police Officers and Agents with the State Bureau of Investigation,” Havelock police said in a media release.

Anyone with information can call Havelock police at (252) 447-3212 or click here.

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HAVELOCK, N.C. (WNCT) — A robbery that happened in 1997, to this day, still has no answers concerning who did it and why it happened.

James “Jamie” Lucas Smith IV was only 19 when he started his job at a local pawn shop. He decided to leave East Carolina University because he was unhappy with his grades and courses. A friend he knew from frequenting a comic book store, John Phillip Mattmiller, 37, helped Smith get his position at the pawn shop.

Both Mattmiller and Smith were working their shifts at Woodson Music & Pawn on November 18, 1997. They were both found dead the next morning.

Officers with the Havelock Police Department were running their routine checks when they noticed that the back door to the pawn shop was open. When they went in to check, the officers saw Mattmiller and Smith bound and beaten to death.

Not only were both men dead but there was also $30,000 in jewelry and several handguns missing. The shop sold different types of weapons but only guns were stolen.

It wouldn’t be until a year later, in 1998, that officers released a drawing of a suspect wanted for questioning. The suspect still has not been found.

In 2000, some of the stolen guns that belonged to the pawn shop were recovered. It only raised more questions.

The case is cold to this day.

Information was used from Uncovered .

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