21/04/2023
The Shooting of Michael Ray
Installment IV
By: Larry J. Griffin
Special Investigative Reporter
The Wilkes Record
"There are two ways to be fooled: One is to believe what isn’t true, the other is to refuse to believe what is true." –Soren Kierkegaard
The death certificate appears definitive. Michael Allen Ray, the son of Charles H. and Shirley Ann Blevins Ray, died at 5:00 PM on Friday December 18, 1984—at Valdese General Hospital—from a gunshot wound to the left-side of the chest, lacerating the left pulmonary artery. The immediate cause of his demise was a, “massive internal hemorrhage.” The gunshot wound, resulting from a projectile fired by a “30-30 riffle [Sic],” was adjudged to be self-inflicted. No autopsy was performed.
Burke Medical Examiner, S. H. Yuan, MD, certified that, “On the basis of the examination of the body and/or the investigation, in my opinion, death occurred on the date and due to the cause(s) stated.”
Born in Buncombe County on June 11, 1964, the decedent was 20-years-of-age, unemployed, never married, and officially resided in the Burke County town of Connelly Springs. Funeral arrangements were handled by Kirksey Funeral Home, Valdese, NC. Burial occurred on Friday December 21, 1984 in Davistown Cemetery, located in the McDowell County town of Old Fort.
These appear to be the irrefutable facts relative to the shooting of Michael Ray, as delineated on the death certificate filed at the Burke County office of the Register of Deeds. Other “facts” reported on this official document either lack specificity or are inaccurate. Interestingly, the time at which the fatal gunshot wound was inflicted is listed as, “Approx. 2:40 P[M].”
The “Place of Injury” is designated as a home located at, “1605 Laurel Road,” in the Burke County town of Valdese, NC. This address is inaccurate. Notably, it would not be the only instance in which the location of the fatal shooting is misstated on an official document.
Though a relatively inconsequential misstatement, the funeral arrangements—inclusive of the burial details—were managed by Kirksey Funeral Home in Morganton in lieu of the one located in Valdese, according to records. As it happened, the Ray Family received friends on Thursday December 20, 1984 from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM. The funeral service was conducted at 2:00 PM at Calvary Freewill Baptist Church in Connelly Springs; the Reverend Mr. Leonard Lindsey officiated.
One other notable departure from the “facts of the case” can be found on the Kirksey Funeral Home Obituary Information Form. The date and time of Michael Ray’s demise are recorded as, “18 December 1984 Tuesday 8 pm.” The former is correct; the latter is not. “I don’t know where they came up with the time,” Donna Ray Balekdjian averred. “My brother was pronounced dead at 5:00 PM at Valdese Hospital—three hours before.”
The death certificate of Michael Allen Ray was officially signed, eight days after-the-fact, on December 26, 1984 and registered at the Register of Deeds (ROD) the next day. The registrar at the time was Charles W. Buckner who did not personally sign the document. Rather, his name was typed by another member of the ROD staff in the signature rectangular block: “ Charles W. Buckner/km.”
Unlike the death certificate, the official Valdese Police Department (VPD) Incident/Investigation report was not dated as to when it was generated. However, there were typed “signatures” of two VPD officers—Rena Benefield and Steve Hoyle— who ostensibly compiled the report under the supervision of Chief Oscar Pascal.
According to the report, a white male, born “06/11/64,” named, “RAY, Michael Allen,” committed “Su***de…By shooting himself in the chest with a 30-30 Rifle.” The “Offense Date At (Found)” is listed as, “1445 (2:45PM) on Tuesday, 12/18/84.” The temperature that clear afternoon—a week before Christmas—was, “72 Deg.” The victim’s address is reported as a post office box in Connelly Springs, NC.
The shooting occurred in the “Residence/Yard” of a house located at, “1601 Laural [Sic] St., Valdese. The individual who reported the incident to VPD, according to the official record, was Richard Barker, whose address is listed as, Russell’s Body Shop.” At the time, the body shop was located next door to the crime scene, on the corner of Laurel Street and Lovelady Road.
The report’s narrative reads:
"On 12/18/84 at 1445 Hrs. Officer R.O. Benfield received a call from Richard Barker at Russell’ [Sic] Body Shop on Laural [Sic] Str., reporting a shooting (boy shot himself). Caller advised that Todd Robertson had ask [Sic] him to call. Officers Hoyle, Brendle, Lambert and Chief Pascal were dispatched and an Ambluence [Sic] was send [Sic] to the scene. Officers arrived on the scene at 1448 Hrs. 12/18/84 and ask [Sic] that EMS be advised this was emergency traffic. EMS was radioed and there [Sic] location was Laural [Sic] Rd. in route to the location. Michael Allen Ray was transported to Valdese General Hospital for treatment of his wounds."
According to the one-page report, the case status indicates that “further investigation” was to be conducted. It also stipulates that “evidence was found.” Two “witness names” appear on the form: “ROBERTSON, Cindy and ROBERTSON, Todd,” both of whom resided at the location of the shooting. Born on Saturday April 6, 1968, Cynthia Lynn ‘Cindy’ Robertson was 16-years-of-age at the time of the incident; Brother Ritchie Todd Robertson, born Monday February 24, 1969, was 15-years-of-age.
A perusal of the official VPD incident report reveals a number of inaccuracies. Aside from the obvious grammatical lapses, the address at which the shooting transpired is incorrect. The fatal incident actually occurred at the Ben Robertson residence, situated at 1603 Laurel Street in Valdese.
While exploring the possibility that the location’s address had been altered or re-numbered across the ensuing 38-years, this writer contacted Larry Johnson, Director of Planning and Zoning for the Town of Valdese—a position that he has held for nine-years. According to Director Johnson—a long-term resident of the area—the address has never been changed. “Yes, I know Ben Robertson; and he has always lived at that address.” Mr. Johnson explained during a telephone interview. “No renumbering has occurred to my knowledge.”
Moreover, the report stipulates that evidence was found, none of which is referenced in the narrative. Additionally, the “case status,” checked within a rectangular box located near the end of the official one-page document, indicates that additional investigation was to be conducted, without referencing a single detail garnered during that inquiry.
“For instance, I asked Valdese PD Chief [Jack] Moss if any gunshot residue testing (GSR) was conducted on my brother to see if he had even fired a weapon that day,” Donna Balekdjian averred during a recent interview with this writer.
Gunshot residue (GSR) testing has been employed by law enforcement for decades. It is utilized to ascertain the presence of chemical and particulate residue that tend to adhere to a shooter’s hand, arm, face, hair, and/or clothing subsequent to the discharging of a weapon.
“And when I asked him, he [Chief Moss] simply replied there was no testing done,” Ms. Balekdjian explained. “Wouldn’t they want to know that before concluding that my brother definitely shot himself?”
For the Ray Family, the official VPD report, acquired during a face-to-face conversation with the current chief of police, Jack Moss, raised more substantive questions than it answered. Further, none of the police officers on the current force were involved in the initial investigation relative to the shooting of Michael Ray. And out of all the officers who were dispatched to the Robertson residence that afternoon and whose names were referenced in the narrative of the report, only one remains; the others are deceased.
Interestingly, on Monday September 26, 2022 during the late evening, a former VPD officer, whose name appears on the incident document, engaged in a social media conversation with Michael’s sister, Donna Ray Balekdjian, offering to answer questions and provide clarification. However, the purported details of the case, proffered during the exchange of media messages, obfuscated more than it illuminated.
[Editor’s Note: The 1985 photo depicts officers on the Valdese Police Department. Of the nine officers photographed, five of them are mentioned in the official investigative report of the shooting of Michael Ray. Credit: The News Herald, Morganton, NC with the original camerawork.]