DOBBINS HEIGHTS — The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has identified the body found behind the Dobbins Heights Community Center Tuesday as that of 17-year-old Malachi Jaheim Hailey of Hamlet.
Hailey’s body has been sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Raleigh to determine cause of death. The investigation is ongoing.
Major Jay Childers said in an email Wednesday that the case is being “investigated as a homicide at this time.”
Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to call the sheriff’s office at 910-895-3232 or Richmond County Crime Stoppers at 910-997-5454.
The body was discovered by the 12-year-old son of Theresa York. York said that her son was playing basketball at the Dobbins Heights Community Park Tuesday afternoon when his ball bounced over the fence. When he walked behind the Community Center to retrieve it, he saw the body and immediately told adults at the pool house, who then dialed 9-1-1.
The body was located about 40 yards behind the Community Center near the tree line, and far enough to the side that it could potentially be seen from the road.
The park was closed for the remainder of the day.
It is unclear how long Hailey’s body had been there. Onlookers at the scene Tuesday reported that they hadn’t seen or heard anything strange in the area prior to the body’s discovery.
Sumaya Webster, director of the Community Center, said that there were no children in the center that day and that she was out passing out calendars for much of the day. When she returned, she said she saw adults at the park looking at something suspicious behind the center, and EMS had already been called.
The scene at the Dobbins Heights Community Center came just two days after a similar scene at the Hamlet City Lake. The body of 29-year-old Steven Ray Bullard, Jr. was discovered by people fishing at the lake on Sunday.
The cause of Bullard’s death has not yet been determined as of Wednesday evening, but police have ruled out foul play. Early evidence shows that he was involved in a single-vehicle accident just down the road from where he was found and an open container of alcohol was in his vehicle.
