The Arrest
Park Predators
This episode explores the tragic 1980 murder of North Carolina wildlife warden Lloyd Mays during an encounter with the Faison brothers. The
Key takeaways
- Lloyd Mays was a highly respected North Carolina wildlife warden and former Special Forces veteran.
- The conflict began when Mays intercepted Samuel and Chester Faison for illegal 'jacklighting' at 4:00 AM.
Main topics
- Lloyd Mays murder investigation
- Illegal jacklighting in North Carolina
Notable quotes
He was sharp enough that he wouldn't let anyone get the jump on him.
Conclusion
A somber examination of how a routine law enforcement stop resulted in
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Every trail leads somewhere, but some don't end in the wilderness. They lead beyond this world. On So Supernatural, hosts Rasha Pecoraro and Yvette Gentile investigate UFO sightings, alien encounters, and the possibility that we're not as alone as we think. Every Friday, they unravel the theories behind the strangest cosmic mysteries and unknown tales. If you're ready to look beyond the trail and see the night sky differently, Listen to So Supernatural wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (0:34) Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And the case I have for you today takes place in Northampton County, North Carolina, which is a region that sits right on the North Carolina-Virginia border. It's actually a few hours northeast of where I'm from, but it could not be more starkly different than the coastal area I was raised in. It's a region known for agriculture and access to acres and acres of vast forest. Another unique feature of this landscape is that two rivers, the Roanoke River and the Heron River, sort of sandwich the county. Agribusiness is the main industry here, but it also has a sterling reputation for being a go-to destination for hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. According to the website VisitNorthamptonNC.com, there are lots of fishing tournaments held here each year, and the county is well known for having a number of hunting clubs. One of the entities tasked with protecting this region's more rugged areas is the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. which is an agency that may sound familiar to some of you. I've talked about it before in previous episodes of Park Predators. Like many wildlife protection agencies, the NC Wildlife Resources Commission has sworn law enforcement officers who make sure people don't violate the rules and regulations put in place to protect wildlife. Back in the fall of 1980, though, on Thanksgiving Day, it was one of the agency's own who needed protecting. This is Park Predators. Speaker 1 (2:14) Shortly before 7 o'clock in the morning on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 27, 1980, officers working for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission in Northampton County were gathering for a pre-dawn end-of-shift meeting when everyone realized that one of the members from their group was missing. 34-year-old gay warden Lloyd Mays, who'd been on shift that morning, was nowhere to be found. It seems that his absence at this meeting was so unusual that right away his co-workers knew something was up. So without hesitating, they and deputies with the Northampton County Sheriff's Office began searching for him throughout the county. In short order, agents with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation also joined the effort. While searching a section of rural roadway near the town of Jackson, a group of those officials came across something disturbing. They spotted the missing gay Morden's vehicle off the roadway hung up on a stump, and things just didn't look quite right. Then, about 30 feet away from that, in some brush covered in leaves and honeysuckle vines, they discovered Lloyd's body. It was clear from the looks of him that he'd been dead for some time. According to coverage by the Charlotte Observer, he had a large shotgun wound to the left side of his chest, and the fact that he'd been intentionally obscured from view suggested whoever had killed him had tried to cover up the crime. Coverage by the Associated Press explained that searchers found evidence on the ground between his body and the roadway that indicated he'd been dragged to where he'd been discovered. I don't know if that means the ground was pressed down, there were shoe prints, flattened vegetation, or what, but whatever the searchers saw, to them, Obviously, it wasn't natural. Meanwhile, deputies in Portsmouth, Virginia, which was about an hour and a half away from Northampton County, received an unusual call from someone in their jurisdiction who said that officers needed to be on the lookout for two brothers, 23-year-old Samuel Faison and 22-year-old Chester Faison. This tipster claimed that Samuel had spoken with him earlier that morning and said that Chester was dead in the backseat of his car and that he'd shot and killed a game warden. The person said he tried to convince Samuel to call the cops and get his brother to a hospital, but Samuel had refused because he said if he did, doctors would find a bullet fired by a North Carolina law enforcement officer in Chester's body. Now, this information was obviously noteworthy to Portsmouth deputies, so much so that after getting a description of the type of car Samuel was said to be driving, they started looking for it in the area. And around 9.30 in the morning, they spotted his vehicle attempting to evade a police cruiser. Soon enough, things escalated and the Portsmouth officers found themselves in a full-blown high-speed chase. Eventually, though, Samuel lost control of his car, slammed into a guardrail, and flipped several times. When the dust finally settled, officers realized the car was completely upside down and sitting on its roof. Inside, they found Samuel alive and Chester dead in the back seat. But Chester hadn't died from injuries sustained in the crash. He had a gunshot wound to his abdomen from what appeared to be a revolver. Samuel was mostly unharmed with just a few cuts that required treatment at a local hospital. After being discharged, he was transported to a jail in Portsmouth, then quickly extradited back to North Carolina to face a pending charge of murder. Two days later, on Saturday, November 29th, he was arraigned in Jackson, North Carolina, where a judge ordered he be held without bond. According to coverage by the Associated Press, the sheriff of Northampton County at the time told reporters that Samuel was the prime suspect in Lloyd's murder. The sheriff explained that Lloyd had stopped the Faison brothers sometime around 4 a.m. on Thursday along a rural county road near Jackson because he'd caught them jacklighting deer. Now, for context, jacklighting is a practice also known as spotlighting. It's when someone shines a light at a deer or any animal to get their attention. And of course, that animal sort of freezes, making it much easier to kill them. That practice is illegal in nearly every county in North Carolina, Northampton County included. State law said, and still does, that it's illegal to jack light after sunset or before sunrise. And because the Faison brothers were doing it around 4 a.m. when Lloyd came across their path, he took issue with it. According to what the sheriff told reporters, Lloyd had first noticed the pair because he saw one of them riding on the hood of their car holding the spotlight, and at some point after stopping them, he seized their shotgun and then an altercation broke out amongst the three men. According to the sheriff, one of the brothers struck Lloyd in his face, took back the shotgun, and began loading rounds into it. That prompted Lloyd to fire at least four shots from his service weapon, one of which had fatally struck Chester in his abdomen. Now, in the midst of everything, Lloyd was shot by the brother's shotgun. The chief wildlife enforcement officer at the time told the press that it was standard protocol for Lloyd to carry a firearm while on duty. However, he and his counterparts were regularly reminded to only use their guns if they were defending themselves. The de facto rule for NC Wildlife Resource Commission officers was to never shoot at people for shooting animals. In this specific scenario, though, Lloyd would have known that the Faison brothers' alleged offense for spotlighting deer would have only been a misdemeanor. So the fact that he'd had to resort to firing his gun strongly suggested a scenario where he'd feared for his life. One of Lloyd's supervisors at the time told the Associated Press that game wardens like him were regularly having encounters with deer hunters illegally operating at night. He stated that