Investigators struggle to find leads in death of inmate attacked inside NC prison

At 9:55 p.m. on June 8, Carolyn Grose’s older brother called her one last time from Tyrrell Prison Work Farm, she said.

He had asked her to send money in the past. She believed he needed it to support his longtime drug habit, to cover purchases from other inmates. But it reached the point where he asked her to send money to inmates’ girlfriends and wives. He’d say, “Please send me money, they’re threatening to beat me up,” Grose said.

The call on June 8 stood out, though.

“He never called me that late at night,” said Grose, who missed the call. “Something wasn’t right.”

The next day, Michael Crumbley, 58, was assaulted by other inmates at the minimum-security facility near Columbia, according to a news release from the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. He died at a hospital on June 14.

His family and an investigator told The Observer that Crumbley was so severely beaten and fractured in the face that it was only a matter of time before he died, once he was transported to Greenville for care.

Weeks later, investigators with the small Tyrrell County Sheriff’s Office and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation have struggled to learn what happened, when it happened and who killed Michael Crumbley, a county investigator said.

“Nobody wants to talk to us,” Tyrrell County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Melissa Spence said of prisoners who might be witnesses.

When they do, “nobody’s seen anything, nobody knows anything,” she said.

Inconsistent witnesses, no video

The day before Crumbley died, prison officials issued a press release saying a Tyrrell Prison Work Farm offender “had been seriously injured” during a June 9 “incident” and was hospitalized. “Some inmate suspects have been identified and relocated away from Tyrrell Prison Work Farm while the investigation proceeds,” the release said.

No cameras captured what turned out to be a fatal assault, an SBI spokesperson said.

When asked if any corrections officers witnessed the attack, Spence said no, adding: “The prison system right now is severely understaffed.”

Systemwide around 41% of North Carolina correctional officer positions were vacant in May, according to the most recent data from the Department of Adult Correction. At Tyrrell Prison Work Farm, the staff vacancy rate was 52.94%, according to the data.

But those numbers don’t capture the offender-to-staff ratio at Tyrrell, said John Bull, a DAC spokesperson. Inmates are moved from one prison to another, Bull said. The facility has “nowhere near” its maximum number of 620, he said.

Bull would not specify what security measures were in place at Tyrrell before Crumbley died — or if any have changed there since the assault.

“We will not discuss security provisions and operations at individual prisons for safety and security reasons,” Bull told The Observer. “We do not wish to potentially jeopardize the safety and security of both staff and offenders.”

With few leads from about 100 interviews, investigators are still looking for evidence, Spence said.

Inmates seem to be following the old street adage of “snitches get stitches,” she said.

Family left with questions

Crumbley was serving a 12-year sentence for being a habitual felon and for drug possession, according to DAC. His projected release date was Jan. 7, 2026.

He kept ties with some family members in the meantime.

“Everybody has that one person in the family who gets steered in the wrong direction, which he did,” his niece, Crystal Crumbley, said. “He couldn’t get himself out of that direction.”

“Michael was crazy, and by that I mean he was just funny,” Grose, his sister, said. “He was into drugs most of his life. But he was also the type of person — he had your back no matter what, or at least he did mine.”

Grose said she believes prisoners that her brother owed money to were involved in the assault.

Investigators have not identified a motive in the killing, Spence said, but it most likely stems from something illegal..

“It’s not because somebody said something about somebody’s mama, or something like that,” Spence said.

In an email, Bull acknowledged that drugs being smuggled into prisons is a “nationwide problem.”

“This is a constant battle, fought daily,” he said. “There are no doubts drugs get into prisons despite extensive efforts to keep them out.”

Some of those efforts include more searches of visitors, contractors and employees entering state prisons; an increased use of trained dogs; and a requirement that all non-legal envelopes in the mail addressed to offenders be photocopied, with the photocopies given to prisoners.

Since the assault, Crumbley’s family told The Observer that communication with the DAC has been sparse, despite their long list of questions.

His daughter, Atlanta Crumbley, wondered why guards did not make rounds in time to catch the assault. And she is in disbelief that there is no video footage, she said.

The assault happened in an open dormitory area, Spence told The Observer. But investigators still don’t know how many inmates were involved, who they were or when the attack occurred within a six-hour window, she said.

Crumbley’s family is holding out hope that whoever is responsible will face consequences.

“I believe they’re going to get to the bottom of this because he was so brutally beat,” Grose said.

Investigative reporter Ames Alexander contributed to this report.

This article was modified on July 5 to correct a term used to describe prison staffing and population numbers.