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By Mike Barnhardt

Enterprise Record

Four Davie residents have been charged with second-degree murder in the December death of a Mocksville woman.

An autopsy revealed that Candace Collett had died of a fentanyl overdose, said Davie Sheriff J.D. Hartman.

Officers were called to a Dogwood Lane residence the night of Dec. 4, where Collett was found dead in the basement, he said.

“Over the course of the past five months, detectives conducted an extensive investigation into the death of Miss Collett,” Hartman said. “Multiple interviews were conducted with persons who were on the scene the night of her death, and other persons who may have had information relative to the case.”

Multiple search warrants were executed, and the investigation revealed that multiple people had supplied Collett with drugs that night.

The case was presented to the Grand Jury last week, which returned indictments for second degree murder, conspiracy to sell fentanyl, and death by distribution, against:

• William Franklin Tatum, 46, of Mocksville, $500,000 bond;

• Brent Seaford Jones, 43, of Norma Lane, Advance, $200,000 bond;

• Lanny Rodgers Collett, 43, of Mocksville, $200,000 bond; and

• Jessica Nicole Ferry, 41, of Mocksville, $200,000 bond.

All four were taken into custody on Monday: Tatum while in jail at the Davie Detention Center on other charges; Mr. Collett at a job site in Bermuda Run; Jones at his reesidence;  and Ferry at Southern Family Medicine in Mocksville.

“The Davie County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to thoroughly investigating crimes involving narcotics, including the delivery, sharing of, or sale of drugs that then cause a person’s death,” Hartman said. “We will never stop working to arrest and prosecute those who provide drugs in our community.”