John Mattmiller

John Mattmiller was remembered by his family as a generous, kind-hearted, and outgoing man who lit up a room. His father, Willard Mattmiller, a retired Marine, said everybody liked his son. His brother, Daniel, recalled that John had a good sense of humor and was a people person. At 37 years old, John was working at the Woodson Music and Friendly Pawn shop in the Slocum Village Shopping Center just off Highway 70 in Havelock, North Carolina.

On the evening of Tuesday, November 18, 1997, John Mattmiller, a male, and his 19-year-old coworker, James Smith, were preparing to close the shop for the night. It was then that they were attacked in a crime that investigators would later describe as shockingly violent and callous. An officer responding to the scene found a door to the pawn shop open and went inside to discover the bodies of the two employees. Both men had been bound, their heads had been covered, and they were brutally beaten to death with golf clubs that the assailant or assailants had taken from the store's inventory.

The subsequent investigation revealed that the attack was also a robbery. The perpetrators stole jewelry, cash, and firearms from the pawn shop. Crucially, they also took the videotape from the store's surveillance system, which has never been recovered. The Havelock Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) launched a major homicide investigation. David McFadyen, who was the district attorney at the time, recalled the brutality of the scene, stating, "As I entered the store I really had no idea what I was going to be faced with."

Over the decades, the investigation has seen twists and turns. While some of the stolen items were eventually recovered, leading investigators to trace the path the items took after the robbery, no arrests have ever been made. Police have identified various persons of interest over the years and confirmed that persons of interest still exist in the case. The case has remained an active investigation, with detectives continually re-evaluating evidence. In June 2024, Havelock police and the SBI conducted an extensive new search for evidence they believed was discarded after the murders in the area of Greenfield Heights Boulevard.

Advances in forensic science have offered new hope. Investigators have repeatedly submitted evidence to the North Carolina State Crime Lab for analysis using modern DNA technology. As of November 2026, the district attorney had approved a request for the state lab to pursue investigative genetic genealogy, a technique that has helped solve other cold cases by matching crime scene DNA to distant relatives in genetic databases. While police confirmed that recently resubmitted samples had not yet yielded new DNA profiles, the effort continues.

The immense grief from the murders has haunted the victims' families for decades. John's father, Willard, said that every Thanksgiving and Christmas without his son is difficult and that the pain doesn't get easier with time. He believes the heartbreak contributed to his wife's death. John's brother, Daniel, stated, "Grief can be 25 years old but it still feels like yesterday. It just doesn’t go away." In 2023, James Smith's sister, Michelle Pitman, started a Facebook page called “Justice for James and John” in the hope that changing loyalties or a guilty conscience might compel someone to come forward.

As of November 2026, nearly three decades after the murders, the case remains an active and open investigation with the Havelock Police Department. Investigators and family members believe there are people in the community who have information that could finally solve the case. They urge anyone with credible information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to contact Captain Anthony Fischer of the Havelock Police Department at 252-447-3212 or Craven County Crime Stoppers at 252-633-5141. All tips can remain anonymous.