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Ann Allred had a feeling something wasn't right.

No matter when she called, she couldn't reach her uncle, Robert Slaydon, on the phone. Allred was worried about Slaydon, who had been married more than 50 years to Allred's Aunt Exie until her death four years ago.

Now Slaydon, remarried a little more than a year after a whirlwind romance with a woman the family hardly knew, was 87 years old with health problems.

"I'd call and call and leave messages," Allred said. Finally, in mid-June, she drove to Slaydon's home in Seagrove.

"I left a nice note on the door," she said. "'Please let me know how Robert is.'"

Later that same night, she got a call from Slaydon's new wife, Melba, who said her husband was already asleep. She said they were leaving early the next day on a cross-country trip.

No one ever saw Robert Slaydon alive again.

On July 26, Randolph County authorities found his body buried in a box behind his home on his 27 acres in Seagrove. He had been asphyxiated.

A day later, Melba June Slaydon, 70, and her son, Ronald Mark Gibbs, 46, were arrested in Alamogordo, N.M., where Melba Slaydon used to live.

There, they were charged with first-degree murder in Slaydon's death. Randolph authorities are seeking their extradition.

"It's a strange case," Randolph County Sheriff Maynard Reid said. "To have lived that long and die like that."

War veteran, area athlete

Slaydon, a well-known area resident, was a D-Day veteran, driving a Sherman tank onto Omaha Beach in some of the roughest fighting of World War II.

He also was a noted athlete. Half a century ago, he was known as "Slightshot" Slaydon on a basketball team in the area's highly competitive industrial league. In 1956, Slaydon and his McCrary hosiery mill team nearly beat the UNC Tar Heels a few months before the undefeated Tar Heels won their first national championship.

Slaydon met Exie Lamb at the hosiery mill, where both were working in the years after World War II. They married in 1957. Though they had no children of their own, they lavished affection on their nieces and nephews, Allred said.

The Slaydons weren't rich, but they were thrifty.

"They canned their own vegetables every year, and they were careful what they spent," said Larry Allred, Ann's husband.

When Exie died of pneumonia four years ago, Robert Slaydon seemed lost, Ann Allred said. "He was such a lonely man."

Whirlwind romance

In late 2005, Robert Slaydon met Melba Gibbs at a Wal-Mart, according to Ann Allred. "She told him she was originally from New Mexico and had come out here to look after a sick aunt in Troy," Allred said.

Within two months, Slaydon and Gibbs were talking about marriage.

"I said, 'You're going fast. Maybe you'd better slow down a little bit,' " Allred said. "But I didn't want to push too hard. He seemed to be happy."

In March 2006, Slaydon married Melba Gibbs at a local magistrate's office. Soon, Melba, her son, Ronald Mark Gibbs, and Melba's aunt, who later died, all had moved into Slaydon's home in Seagrove. Then, they all moved into a new modular home Slaydon put on the property.

"She told him she had never had a home of her own and wanted one," Allred said.

Visits and even phone calls from Slaydon to his extended family become more infrequent, Allred said. "Whenever we'd call, she'd say he couldn't come to the phone or wasn't feeling well.

"When we did talk to him, he'd seem to have less and less to say. He didn't act just right."

Soon, Melba had a new Cadillac in the driveway and a big shiny ring on her finger, Allred said. Her son had his own new Harley-Davidson motorcycle, all courtesy of Robert Slaydon. Family members learned that Robert Slaydon, who had a mild case of Parkinson's disease, had given Melba power of attorney over his financial affairs.

By mid-June, when Melba Slaydon said she and Robert were leaving on a trip — first to New York and Ohio to see some of his old Army buddies and then to New Mexico — relatives were getting suspicious.

"I told (Melba), 'He's got a blood clot in his leg. Should he be going on that kind of trip?' " Allred said. "She said, 'He really wants to go.' "

A family's suspicions

The next day, Robert Slaydon's orange Chevrolet pickup was gone from the driveway, along with a new travel trailer the Slaydons had bought. None of the relatives heard from either of them until July 3, when Melba Slaydon called a niece to say that Robert had suffered a mild stroke in Alamogordo. She said he was unable to talk and would remain there.

That's when nephew Jimmy Barker of Asheboro grew concerned. Robert Slaydon had neither picked up his prescription medicine from the post office nor arranged for someone to care for his lawn. Barker filed a missing persons report on the couple.

Randolph County authorities telephoned Melba Slaydon, but upon contacting Alamogordo police, found that she had given them a phony address.

Finally, on July 25, after the Slaydons' pictures had been widely distributed in the Alamogordo area, Gibbs and Melba Slaydon were located and questioned by police there.

Both had changed their hair color and tried to change their appearance, Alamogordo police Detective Lee Wilder said.

Melba Slaydon was released; her son was held on a misdemeanor charge of concealing his identity. But because they had given conflicting stories, Wilder said, a search warrant for Slaydon's property in Asheboro was obtained.

The next day, Robert Slaydon's body was found in a newly dug hole behind his house at 4828 New Hope Church Road. An arrest warrant was issued for Melba Slaydon on the charge of failing to notify law officers of a death.

That night, Alamogordo police arrested Melba Slaydon, saying she had injured her wrists in what may have been a suicide attempt.

She, along with her son who already was in custody, were charged with first-degree murder.

On Wednesday, Slaydon and Gibbs refused to waive their rights to an extradition hearing and return to Randolph County to face charges. Randolph authorities said they will seek a governor's warrant to have both returned for trial.

A spokeswoman for the Otero County, N.M., Public Defender's Office said Slaydon and Gibbs are in the process of having a public defender appointed to their case.

Authorities are saying little about the case, but they say money may have been the motive.

"It's a very strange case," said Reid, the Randolph County sheriff. "It's the old-timey murder-type deal."

Contact Tom Steadman at 883-4411, Ext. 228, or tsteadman@news-record.com