News

Motorist saw a person hanging out of Jeep

Dequi Taylor is shown on his Facebook page.

By Bill Moss, Published: December 3, 2015

A motorist who was driving behind the Jeep thought to be involved in the bizarre Ninth Avenue murder case said she saw what looked like a struggle as the SUV traveled on N.C. 191 and Asheville Highway with a wide open passenger-side door Thursday afternoon.

Police on Friday morning identified the victim in what detectives are investigating as a homicide. Officers are looking for a burgundy 2015 Jeep Compass with out-of-state plates that witnesses saw leaving the scene.

On Friday morning police identified the victim as Deque DeAngelo Taylor, 28, of Fletcher.

The motorist, Tracy Stevens, said one car separated her from the Jeep at 3 o'clock Thursday afternoon when traffic was stacked up on N.C. 191 as it meets Asheville Highway coming toward Hendersonville.

"The traffic was stopped," she said. "It finally starts to go and I noticed the car door was open on the passenger side — I couldn't tell if it was the front or back. I could see a ski hat flying out the window. I was trying to lean over so I could see. Then I could see a foot. I couldn't tell if that person was trying to get out of the car or was being held in the car. ... It was the weirdest thing."

She said the car continued northbound on Asheville Highway and turned on Fleming Street, where she lost sight of it. "The door was wide open," she added. "I thought, Is the door stuck open? I kept thinking they were going to pull over because there's plenty of places to pull over."

Stevens called police Thursday night and told officers what she had seen.

"I actually went to meet them" at the spot where the ski cap flew out of the car, beside Campbell Family Auto at 1255 Asheville Highway. Officers searched for the hat but did not find it.

"The cause of Mr. Taylor's death is still unclear at this point in our investigation" Lt. Chris LeRoy said in a news release. "The medical examiner's office has scheduled an autopsy to take place at Baptist Medical Center at Wake Forest University on Monday."

“It was just an awful scene,” Police Chief Hubert Blake said minutes before the City Council convened its regular meeting Thursday evening. “Anytime you see a young person dead on the side of the street it does something to you. You never get used to that. We don’t know what’s going on. We’re working on it."

Two hours later, Blake had gotten an update on the case from detectives. Investigators had identified the victim."It's a homicide," Blake said.

Investigators on Friday were pursuing a potentially useful lead. "I know it's a rental car," LeRoy said. "We don't know if it's local or Asheville or Charlotte or whatever." The SBI was helping trace phone records. The body did not have a mobile phone on it. "We've got five or six names" of suspects detectives are checking out, LeRoy said.

Investigators ask that anyone with information on the crime to call the police department at 828-697-3025.

'Laid-back, beautiful person'

Taylor, whose first name on his Facebook page was spelled Dequi, was married and had a daughter, according to comments on the social media site. Even before investigators released the name of the victim, friends were commenting about Taylor's death on his Facebook page.

“I would think I'm used to saying RIP by now but instead of saying all the sad stuff... I'm gone say we used to be together everyday after school Dequi Taylor," one friend said. "Always trading dvd's, playing basketball ...walking you home through the woods to River Glen."

“You were such a chill, laid-back, beautiful person — inside & out!!" a female friend wrote. "You ALWAYS knew how to make a person feel better & your smile would light up a room of darkness!”

At least five witnesses called 911 to report the body on the side of the road.

“There’s a guy sitting there on the side of the road," one said. A man in a red sports car had stopped to help. "He was on the phone," the caller told a dispatcher. "He just told me to call 911. I drove away but I don’t think he’s alive. There’s students everywhere.”

Another 911 caller said someone stopped and draped a blanket over the man.

"He’s by Ninth and Justice … in front of the house, Somebody’s getting a blanket to cover him up. I hear some ambulances or something coming."

None said they had witnessed the victim being thrown or pushed from a vehicle. Another caller said the victim was bleeding and partially clothed.

Town abuzz

Because of where and when it happened, the case had the town abuzz Thursday afternoon and night. Police had little to go on at first: a young man was dead on the street, bloody from multiple trauma. With no ID, the body's best clue was a large tattoo of a locomotive on the left side of his chest. There were sketchy reports of what was going on a red SUV that he fell out of. Dozens of parents were concerned when they heard about a fatality on a street that carries traffic from three schools. At around the same time, there was a minor unrelated school bus accident.

“We’ve got some vague information on the type of vehicle," Blake said at 5:30. "Maybe a red SUV, maybe with Tennessee tags, no description of the driver or anything. The person that called it in and gave a description was not able to tell us if they saw him jump out of the car or he was pushed out of the car. We just don’t have a lot to work on until we can ID him.”

“Right now it’s a death investigation,” Blake said. “Until we identify him and find out why he was in that vehicle” police won’t know what happened. It was not clear from witness statements whether the victim jumped or was pushed out of the vehicle.

Blake described the victim as a light skinned black male in his 20s with a “decent sized tattoo on his chest of a train.” He had "multiple areas of trauma." Police showed photos of the victim to Hendersonville High School principal Bobby Wilkins to find out if he may have known him. He did not.

"It's a death investigation and there's a vehicle involved," said LeRoy shortly after 5 p.m. Police and firefighters were on the scene for two hours after getting the call at 3:05 p.m. that a young man had been thrown from or fallen from the SUV on Ninth Avenue, a busy road at that time of day that carries traffic from three schools.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

Frank Sitton, who lives in the 700 block of Ninth Avenue at the spot where the death occurred, said he did not hear or see anything. Police took away a segment of fence from Sitton's front yard that contained blood from the victim, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.

"I don't know anything," he said. "I know they just washed up a bunch of blood off the street. They had the fire department here."

FOR MORE INFORMATION RETURN TO THE HENDERSONVILLELIGHTNING.COM.