Sheriff's deputies say an ex-pastor already serving a life sentence for murder has been charged with killing 29-year-old Anastasia “Star” Talisha Meaders, whose skeletal remains were discovered near Lake Norman in January 2019 and identified in October.
Timothy Lavaun Crumitie, 54, was charged with murder Tuesday, and previously had been convicted of the attempted murder of Meaders’ mother, Kimberly Cherry, along with the murder of Michael Gretsinger, Cherry’s boyfriend.
According to the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office, Crumitie committed both those crimes in August 2016 and was convicted in 2018.
Crumitie was the pastor of a church in Concord, where he met Cherry and Meaders, deputies said.
Deputies say Meaders was reported missing during the same time as the attempted murder of her mother, Cherry. She was last seen June 17, 2016, at a Charlotte beauty shop. She last communicated with a family member on June 24, 2016.
In January 2019, about 70 human bones were discovered in a wooded area off Bridgewater Lane near Mooresville. Though the body was not identified, the cause of death was ruled to be a gunshot wound to the head.
Forensic dentistry and forensic anthropology experts at North Carolina State University spent about 10 months examining the bones, and in October 2019, DNA extracted from one of the teeth was identified as Meaders. The Iredell County Sheriff’s Office announced the identification in December.
Police say Crumitie has a long criminal history, including a 1989 arrest for armed robbery in Onslow County, for which he served eight years in prison, and a September 2005 arrest in the murder of his business partner, Danny Daye Johnson in Mecklenburg County, for which he spent five years in jail and released when the case was dismissed. When his house burned down in December 2013, Crumitie was arrested and charged with intentionally burning the house, and was convicted in December 2015.
The Iredell County Sheriff’s Office says the investigation remains ongoing.
