What started as a simple welfare check in the quiet mountain community of Fairview, North Carolina, quickly turned into a heartbreaking triple murder investigation that stretched across state lines and shocked two communities. Authorities say three members of the Grant family were found shot to death inside their home Thursday evening before investigators tracked down a missing teenage girl and an older man hours later in Tennessee.
According to the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were first called to the home on Ashworth Drive around 7:15 p.m. after a concerned relative asked for a welfare check. Inside the mobile home, deputies found Travis Eugene Grant, 41, Kimberly Michelle Grant, 42, and Sharon Harwood Grant, 66, all dead from gunshot wounds. Investigators later confirmed the victims were members of the same family.
As deputies processed the scene, investigators realized 16-year-old Star Grant, who lived at the home, was missing. Detectives soon began looking into the possibility that she had fled North Carolina with Devan Oneal Loving, 28. Officials said information gathered during the investigation pointed them toward East Tennessee overnight.
By early Friday morning, agents with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and Gatlinburg Police tracked the pair to the Gatlinburg area. Authorities arrested both suspects shortly before 6 a.m. without incident. Sheriff’s officials later announced that both Star Grant and Loving were charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony conspiracy to commit murder. Officials also confirmed the teenager is being charged as an adult.
During a Friday night press conference, investigators revealed this was not the first time deputies had been called to the property. Welfare checks had also been requested Monday and Wednesday, but deputies said they did not have enough legal grounds at the time to force their way into the home. That detail added another painful layer to the tragedy as neighbors tried to understand how an entire family could end up dead inside the residence.
Then came another strange twist that grabbed attention online. A woman from nearby Sevierville, Tennessee, claimed the suspects delivered her DoorDash order just hours before they were arrested. The woman said the interaction felt unusual from the beginning. She recalled both suspects stepping out of the vehicle and lingering outside her home longer than expected.
The woman also claimed the pair had a small white puppy with them and told her they were visiting from North Carolina. She later realized who they allegedly were after seeing news reports about the arrests. Investigators have not publicly commented on the DoorDash encounter itself, but many believe digital tracking technology connected to the delivery may have helped authorities locate the suspects in East Tennessee.
Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller praised investigators who worked through the night to make the arrests happen quickly. He said many officers had not slept as they focused on bringing answers to grieving relatives and the wider community. Both suspects remain in Tennessee awaiting extradition hearings before being returned to North Carolina to face the charges connected to the killings.
