GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Joyce "Jo" Price Eaton was stabbed and shot to death by a man she knew, at least in part, because of money, police said Wednesday.
Anthony Clay Campbell, 53, of 156 Charleston Ridge Road in Mocksville, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Eaton, 45, whose body was found June 12 on AT&T Drive in McLeansville.
She was shot once and had several lacerations to her neck. The official cause of death is still pending confirmation from the N.C. Medical Examiner's Office.
"Love, greed and deceit caused this," Guilford County Sheriff B.J. Barnes said.
The pair had been in a relationship for a few months, and Barnes said Eaton was killed, in part, over lies about money, although he declined to elaborate at a news conference Wednesday.
Police examined cellphone records that they say implicated Campbell. Calls to "a boyfriend" were mentioned by Eaton's family in a 911 call to the High Point Police Department.
Campbell's cellphone records indicated Campbell was one of the last people to whom Eaton had talked on the night she died. Records also indicate he was in the area where her body was found and where her car was later located, Barnes said.
"We're very confident we have the right person," Barnes said.
Eaton worked at Verizon Wireless at Alamance Crossing shopping center in Burlington. She left work about 9 p.m. on June 11.
According to a recording of that 911 call on June 13, in which she was reported missing, a woman tells the 911 operator that one of Eaton's coworkers had said she left work upset after a call to a boyfriend, about 9 p.m. on June 11.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office found Eaton's white, 2007 BMW 328i on West Ten Road in Hillsborough on June 13, the day after her body was found, Barnes said.
Blood was found inside the car.
Campbell and Eaton's relationship was initially about business but turned personal, said Capt. Tony Caliendo of the Guilford County Sheriff's Office.
At the time of her death, Eaton was separated from her husband, Dairus Billy Eaton Jr. She met Campbell when he was in a business venture with her husband, Caliendo said. That venture no longer exists.
Barnes said Campbell is an independent entrepreneur but did not describe his work.
According to federal court documents, Campbell filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy twice in 2013. Both times the action was dismissed for failure to obtain credit counseling.
Campbell listed no income or unemployment compensation in the document filings.
When listing assets, Campbell stated he did not have a firearm.
After Eaton was reported missing by her family, that report was transferred to Burlington police because she last was seen in Burlington.
Burlington police alerted the sheriff's office that the missing persons case may be connected to a homicide it was investigating on AT&T Drive, Barnes said.
Eaton was identified by family members June 13 through photographs, Barnes said.
Campbell makes a first appearance in Guilford County District Court at 2 p.m. Thursday. He is being held without bail in the Guilford County Detention Center.
Copyright 2014 - News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
