— When Robeson County sheriff’s deputies went to arrest Dwayne Oxendine for second-degree murder in the death of his friend, they found the 27-year-old sitting on his front porch with a Bible in his lap, reading scripture.

“I can tell you that child was haunted by it. He had to be haunted by it,” said Pamela Goines, the girlfriend of Oxendine’s father.

Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said his office got a tip that Oxendine had begun talking with people about a murder. When confronted, Oxendine told investigators where to find the body of 35-year-old Bruce Lee Hunt, who had been missing for about three years.

Hunt was entombed in an old well in Oxendine’s front yard.

His body was removed from the well last weekend and positively identified Friday by the state medical examiner. An autopsy showed he had been shot in the head.

“I’m still in disbelief,” said Goines, who lives next door to Oxendine. She said he had moved to Tennessee shortly after Hunt's disappearance and returned a few months ago.

Hunt's mother, Elizabeth Locklear, reported him missing in April 2010.

“I slept by the door on a mattress for two years, waiting for him to knock on my door,” she said. “Everybody said get off that floor. I said I’m afraid he’ll come knocking, and I will not be there to let him in.”

She said she was speechless when she heard of Oxendine’s arrest, but she’s thankful that she has closure.

“I don’t have any hate for him because my Lord tells us we have to forgive,” Locklear said. “It hurts, it hurts.”

Locklear said she cannot afford to bury her son and hopes the community can help.

Oxendine was held on a $50,000 bond.