Sheriff’s Office investigating death in Monkey Junction

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A grisly discovery this morning in New Hanover County. Deputies say someone found 33-year-old Michael Lamar Smith dead inside a car in a Monkey Junction parking lot.

Judy Niedwiecky works at Edward Jones Investments, which is just two doors down from where a middle aged man was found dead outside of the Blockbuster on South College Road. She says she came into work just before eight thursday morning and parked in her usual spot.

“I noticed the car sitting two aisles away from me, but I didn’t think too much of it,” Niedwiecky said. “I thought maybe it was some early prep person for Ruby Tuesday.”

It turned out to be much more.

“It was pretty desolate other than a couple of cars,” New Hanover County Sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Jerry Brewer said. “It was just sitting in an open parking lot.”

Brewer says investigators do not know much about what happened.

“They found a male subject in the passenger side of the vehicle with apparent gunshot wounds,” he said. “EMS arrived and investigation by detectives is still going.”

Niedwiecky says she was just glad she didn’t park closer to the car.

“I was just grateful that whatever took place took place two aisles over, because had it been right near my car, I would have looked inside, thinking maybe it was a client waiting for me, and that would’ve been hard for me to have seen that,” she said.

Sheriff’s deputies have not confirmed what led to Smith’s death.