Mar. 31—LUMBERTON — The reward for information in the Thursday shooting death of 47-year-old Julie Eberly on Interstate 95 has been doubled to $20,000, according to Robeson County’s sheriff.
County residents have given the Sheriff’s Office $20,000 in reward money “for information leading to probable cause for the issuance of warrants and the arrest of the suspect(s) responsible for the murder of Julie Eberly,” Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. The reward offered Friday was $10,000.
“We are going to aggressively track down the driver of this vehicle,” Wilkins said in the statement.
The Sheriff’s Office released an image of the vehicle taken from surveillance footage on Monday evening and again on Tuesday.
“Detectives have worked nonstop 24/7 to identify this coward. If you know who it is and who owns this car, come forward now. Do not become part of a conspiracy and call us now,” the sheriff said.
The Julie Michelle Eberly Memorial Foundation GoFundMe page organized Friday by Julie Eberly’s mother-in-law Susan Eberly, raised $55,860 as of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. The family set up the page after Wilkins encouraged them to allow county residents and others to help them.
The family plans to donate to organizations “close to her heart,” according to the GoFundMe page.
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office is asking business owners and residents of homes located in the areas of North Elm Street, 16th Avenue, East Fifth Street and Alamac Road in Lumberton, and south of the city to review their surveillance systems’ footage from the period of 11:40 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday for the images of the suspect’s vehicle. The vehicle has been described as a silver, four-door Chevrolet Malibu manufactured between 2008 and 2013 with N.C. license plates.
The vehicle was identified Monday in surveillance footage as the one involved in the shooting Thursday near exit 22 on I-95. The passenger car has tinted windows and chrome trimming around the window frame. The person who fired the fatal shots about 11:40 a.m. is described as an African American male with dreadlocks.
Ryan Eberly, who was driving his wife, Julie, to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, for a vacation spoke of the fatal encounter on Monday with a Pennsylvania-based newspaper.
Eberly told Lancaster Online he was driving behind a slow-moving vehicle in the left lane of southbound I-95 on Thursday.
Lancaster Online reported “when he moved into the right lane, he suddenly saw (the) Malibu driving on the shoulder, spraying stones against Eberly’s car. Eberly figured the Malibu could have been behind him and switched lanes to pass Eberly and the other car at the same moment he moved over, forcing the Malibu onto the shoulder.”
Eberly recalled making a hand gesture of apology in response to the driver’s gesture before he merging back into the left lane. That’s when the Malibu closed in and followed the Eberly’s vehicle from behind, he told the newspaper. The driver then pulled beside the vehicle and began shooting into the passenger’s side of the Eberlys’ vehicle.
“I looked over. The passenger window of my car was shattered. My wife called my name,” Eberly told the Lancaster newspaper.
Witnesses said the suspect vehicle got off I-95 at exit 22, crossed over the bridge and drove into Lumberton, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The victim’s vehicle was pulled over on I-95, and the Eberlys waited for assistance.
Julie Eberly was taken to UNC Health Southeastern’s medical center in Lumberton, where she later died of her injuries. Ryan was not injured during the shooting.
The Sheriff’s Office described the shooting as a road rage encounter.
Julie Eberly leaves behind her husband of seven years and six children, who live in Manheim, Pennsylvania.
Investigators are asking anyone with information pertaining to the investigation to call the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at 910-671-3170 or send an email to [email protected]