A group of N.C. kayakers came upon human remains while paddling along Johns River Aug. 30, sparking a death investigation.
The man – whose body was found near the Corpening Bridge – was identified as Mark Dwayne Mitchell, according to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, who have arrested three people in connection with the case, according to a press release from the office.
Robert Ford Dale, Jr., 58, Rocky Lee Dale, 35, and Lorie Knight Stephens, 50, are each charged with felony concealment of unnatural death and disturbing human remains, according to their warrants for arrest, which were obtained by PEOPLE.
They have not yet entered pleas to the charges, Burke County Criminal deputy clerk Sara Canada tells PEOPLE.
Investigators have released sparse information about the circumstances surrounding Mitchell’s death, and on Tuesday, Sept. 10, Canada told PEOPLE that the sheriff’s office had not yet filed many of the preliminary documents in the case.
Rick Ramsey – who employed Mitchell as a handyman working on several properties near the area – told local outlet WSOC-TV that he had provided the man with housing and noted that several items near the home went missing around the time he did.
“Something seemed not correct,” Ramsey told the outlet. “I don’t know, it’s just sad why someone would treat him that way, dead or alive.”
Burke Sheriff’s Office
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As part of the death investigation, detectives executed a search warrant on Friday, Sept. 6, at the elder Dale’s residence – about an eight-minute drive from where Mitchell’s body was found – leading to a slew of other charges against the father and son, according to law enforcement.
Inside the Morganton, N.C., home, police allege they recovered “numerous firearms, some of them confirmed stolen,” as well as methamphetamine, according to the sheriff’s office’s press release.
The elder Dale – who has been in and out of prison including for a second-degree murder conviction in 1993, per the courts – was charged Monday, Sept. 9 with an additional nine felonies for drugs and weapons charges, including one count of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, according to his warrant for arrest.
His son was charged with an additional seven felonies, most of them weapons possession charges, per his warrant, which also alleges that he failed to register as a sex offender. (Canada tells PEOPLE that the younger Dale was convicted as a sex offender in another county and faces additional separate pending charges in Burke County.)
Burke Sheriff’s Office
The father and son will make their first appearance for the second set of charges on Thursday, Sept. 9, at 9 a.m., according to the sheriff’s office.
At a bond hearing for the initial charges on Monday, Sept. 9 the elder Dale’s secured bond was increased to $250,000 while the younger’s secured bond was set at $500,000 and Stephens’s remained at $75,000.00 secured, according to Canada.
The three – who are held at Burke County Jail – are slated for probable cause hearings on Monday, Sept. 30, with the case expected to go to the grand jury in October.
PEOPLE reached out to the trio’s court-appointed lawyers for comment. Only the father’s lawyer responded.
In a phone interview, Steve Cheuvront noted that the elder Dale had been arrested in connection to the alleged disposal of Mitchell’s body, not his death, noting that investigators’ understanding of the case remained “very preliminary.”
“I feel sorry for his family,” Cheuvront adds.
