Statesville resident Leroy Harmon, 61, described by those who knew him as humble, loyal and dedicated to friends, family and his work, was found dead in a vehicle at a camp site Saturday morning in Grayson County, Va.
According to Statesville Police Department Chief Tom Anderson, authorities there said no evidence at the scene suggested foul play. Harmon was listed as a missing person, and wasn’t heard from since Monday.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
Grayson County is about 75 miles northwest of Statesville and I-77 north passes through the county. According to family friend Jackie Edwards of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Harmon owned a camper that he kept in that area as a sort of getaway.
Harmon was last heard from at 8:19 a.m. Monday, when he called his workplace, Black Automotive in Statesville, and reported having car trouble. Harmon, a mechanic for more than 30 years, told a co-worker he would take care of the repairs and return to work as soon as possible.
Sgt. Charlie Rambo of the Statesville Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division said Friday that the phone call Harmon made to his workplace was traced to the Columbia, S.C., area.
Edwards told the R&L on Friday that Harmon told family members Sunday night that he was on the way to South Carolina to pick up a trailer.
Harmon’s brother, Bruce, said Friday it was unusual for Leroy to not keep in contact with family.
“He was the most loyal, honest and trustworthy person you could ever meet,” Edwards said Saturday after hearing of Leroy’s passing. “They just don’t make people like that. They just don’t. He was a genuine soul, and I can’t believe this has happened. I just can’t believe it. I was hoping to God they would find him. We were just hoping that maybe he wanted to get away.”
Bruce Harmon drove to Virginia on Saturday to identify his brother’s body.
“He was a great guy,” Bruce said.
William Boggs, owner of Boggs Motor Company, which employed Leroy for a number of years, remembered his former wrecker driver as selfless.
“He was just a very helpful person,” said Boggs. “He’d go out of his way to help somebody do anything. He was a very positive person.”
Leroy, a Statesville High School graduate, was not married and had no children, according to his brother. He lived with and cared for his mother.
And his favorite musician was Elvis Presley, said Edwards.
“He was probably one of the biggest Elvis fans you’d ever met,” Edwards said. “I cannot tell you the stuff he’d collected.”
Every holiday season, Leroy was known to pick up groups of elderly women from local churches and take them to see the Christmas lights at Tanglewood. His family is originally from the Banner Elk area, and he returned to the mountains each winter with his mother.
“Leroy was the type of person that — everybody always came before him,” Edwards said. “I never heard a cuss word come out of the man’s mouth. … I never saw him get mad. I never saw him get upset. He was always the same — friendly, happy, nothing ever bothered him.”
Boggs reiterated that Leroy would be missed in the community.
“The world would be a better place if there were more Leroy Harmons,” Boggs said. “He was a unique person.”
Anderson said he was saddended to hear of Harmon’s death.
In Harmon’s time as a wrecker driver, he regularly came to wreck scenes and answered requests from law enforcement to pick up broken down or abandoned vehicles.
“I’ve known him since I started working here,” said Anderson, who has been with the SPD for 18 years.
“He was a great, great guy.”
