Gloucester murder discovered after break-in; The armed group was looking for a missing person, the sheriff’s office says

An investigation into a break-in turned into a homicide investigation in Gloucester County over the weekend that led sheriff’s deputies to discover a body buried in a vacant property along the York River.

The Gloucester Sheriff’s Office received a report of a break-in at a residence in the 8600 block of Back Creek Road that cited “several” related incidents from Saturday night into Sunday morning. According to sheriff’s office spokesman Maj. Ryan Cookson, the three men were searching for 36-year-old Kyron Tyrone Long and had multiple “adversarial” interactions with two other men during the night.

Authorities said Long was killed inside the home on Friday. His body was not found until Sunday, about 15 miles south of the home.

The sheriff’s office said the group of three forced their way into the residence on Back Creek Road, where Long was staying. They armed themselves with weapons and beat up two people inside the house and escaped. Cookson said two people inside the home called 911. Less than an hour after deputies arrived at the scene, the group returned to a vehicle but tried to drive away when law enforcement saw them, he said.

Deputies stopped and arrested 35-year-old Katherine Elizabeth Wright, 19-year-old David Isaiah Ford and a 17-year-old juvenile. Deputies found firearms in their vehicle. All three have been charged with armed break-in-related offences, but Ford is also charged with malicious wounding.

Further investigation led to the discovery of Long’s body in the 2900 block of Carmine’s Island Road in Hays. Cookson said the body was buried in dirt against swampy surroundings on a vacant property in the southernmost part of the Carmines archipelago’s two main islands.

Two men inside the residence prior to the break-in, Edward Lee Hodges and Winfrey Carlton Henry, have been charged in Long’s death. According to Cookson, Hodges, 33, and Henry, 24, called 911 to report the initial break-in.

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“It sounds unusual but you have to remember, at the moment they are being attacked and the people attacking them have firearms so at this point it has escalated to a degree where they felt they had to engage us,” Cookson said.

Cookson added that all five involved knew each other, and that the situation was not domestic in nature, but declined to elaborate. Cookson said investigators were unable to pinpoint Long’s exact address because he apparently “bounced from place to place.”

Henry is charged with second-degree murder, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and concealment of a corpse. Hodges is charged with concealing a dead body and being an accessory to a felony after the incident.

A later relative identified Long’s body, but the chief medical examiner’s office is still in the process of making a positive identification, Cookson said.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, [email protected]