Mother Told Police Son Shot Himself And Was A Suicide
Clayton Police arrested 57-year-old Elizabeth Wilkins Yarborough at her home on Stetson Lane in Clayton today (Wednesday) on second-degree murder charges in the death of her adult son.
The arrest was the result of a month-long investigation into the Christmas Day shooting of 32-year-old James Benjamin Yarborough Jr.
On December 25, 2017, Elizabeth Yarborough, the victim’s mother, called 911 to her home at Riverwood Haven senior apartments and told dispatchers she needed help for her son.
When Clayton Police officers arrived, they found her son lying just inside the apartment with a single gunshot wound to his head. Yarborough initially told officers that her son had shot himself with his own gun and his death was a suicide, police said.
Clayton police detectives continued to work the case and through exhaustive evidentiary examinations, numerous interviews, and questioning of Yarborough, they were able to establish probable cause for second degree murder charges in her son’s Christmas Day death.
Clayton Police worked closely with the Johnston County District Attorney’s Office on this case.
Yarborough is being held without bond in the Johnston County Jail.
This is only the third murder case in Clayton in the past 4 years, the most recent being the murder of 25-year-old Garrett Howard Bridges in July of 2016.
