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Stepson recalled
Stepfather last saw victim two days before body was found
Lance Schoolfield
Thursday, July 12, 2012
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
The last time Lance Schoolfield saw his mother and stepfather, he was headed to the store.
“He asked, ‘Did I need anything from the store,’” said Schoolfield’s stepfather, Joe Hairston. Schoolfield “asked his mother the same thing.”
That was Sunday, and other family members saw him on Monday, Hairston said. The next morning, Schoolfield, 19, of Elder Court, Martinsville, was found dead of a gunshot wound in Apartment 1 at 106 Moss St.
Martinsville police have said Schoolfield’s body was found Tuesday, lying on the floor in the kitchen area of the apartment.
Martinsville Police Capt. Eddie Cassady said Wednesday that Schoolfield had acquaintances there, but he did not live in the apartment.
When police were summoned to the scene between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Tuesday, Cassady said there were other people in the apartment.
“It was just the people who live there,” he added.
Cassady declined to identify those people. He also would not provide specific details about the time of Schoolfield’s death or the number and location of wounds.
“We are waiting for some of that information” to come from the Medical Examiner’s Office, where Schoolfield was taken for an autopsy, Cassady said.
There was alcohol at the scene, but no drugs were found there, Cassady said.
On Wednesday, other investigators continued conducting interviews in connection with the case.
“We are interviewing as many people as we can right now” in hopes of finding the shooter, Cassady said. “This was tragic.”
Hairston said that Schoolfield lived with him and his mother. He called Schoolfield “just a fun-going person. He liked a little golf, and he liked to play basketball. He loved making you laugh.”
Schoolfield graduated from Martinsville High School, his stepfather said.
“He was very smart in school. A lot of people don’t know this, but he was very smart,” Hairston said.
Schoolfield had planned to enlist in the Army. “He talked about that, and he was working on it,” Hairston said.
He has many memories of Schoolfield to cherish, he said.
“I’ll just remember him as Lance,” Hairston said. “There wasn’t but one” like him.
Police ask anyone with any information about Schoolfield’s death to call the Martinsville Police Department at 638-8751 or Crime Stoppers at 63CRIME (632-7463).
Rewards of up to $1,000 are available through Crime Stoppers for information related to unsolved crimes. The amount of any reward is determined by the nature of the crime and the substance of information provided.
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