By Sarah Nagem
snagem@salisburypost.com
Candice Jo Drye was addicted to hydrocodone, and when she needed more, she went to Dr. David Boyd, according to her stepfather.
Now she’s in the Rowan County Detention Center, charged in Boyd’s murder.
Two people close to Drye ó stepfather Jerry Cruse and her boyfriend ó said Friday that Candice Drye visited Boyd’s house at 9 Pine Tree Road on Wednesday night, hours before Boyd was found dead.
Drye, 23, and her three children lived with Cruse and other family members at 142 Delano’s Lane, Mocksville.
“It’s very depressing for me right now,” Cruse said. “I’ve been crying all damn day. I never thought something like this would happen.”
Cruse said his stepdaughter had been getting prescriptions for hydrocodone from Boyd, a 47-year-old dentist, for about a year. Cruse and Drye’s boyfriend, who is the father of her three young children, say Drye went to see Boyd on Wednesday evening.
But they offered different reasons for the visit while the dentist’s wife and children were at the beach.
Cruse said Boyd had offered to loan Drye money to rent an apartment for herself, her boyfriend and her three children. She was supposed to meet Boyd on Wednesday evening to get the money, Cruse said.
Drye’s boyfriend, Stephen Boyd, who is not related to Dr. Boyd, said his mother drove Drye to the dentist’s office on Statesville Boulevard about 5:15 p.m. Wednesday. Drye needed another prescription, Stephen Boyd said.
His mother dropped Drye off in the driveway and agreed to pick her up in 15 minutes or so. But when his mother returned to the office, he says, the office had closed and no one was there.
Drye’s stepfather and boyfriend say they heard from her and Dr. Boyd later Wednesday night.
Cruse said Dr. Boyd called him at home in Mocksville late Wednesday, asking him to pick up his drunken stepdaughter in Salisbury. Dr. Boyd was at his home near the Country Club of Salisbury when he called, Cruse said.
“I told him my daughter cannot handle alcohol,” he said. He refused to drive to Salisbury to pick her up.
Instead, the Cruses called boyfriend Stephen Boyd’s family for help and told them of the dentist’s call.
Stephen Boyd’s mother found Dr. Boyd’s phone number and called his house. “He answered the phone and told her how to get where he lived,” Stephen Boyd said.
His mother set out to get Drye and discovered her walking down the road about a half-mile from Dr. Boyd’s house around midnight, he said.
Drye was “very upset” when she got in the car, Stephen Boyd said.
“She had got in the car and said that he (Dr. Boyd) had raped her,” he said.
But Drye apparently did not go to a hospital or call the police after claiming she had been raped. Stephen Boyd said Drye did not say the dentist had been hurt or tied up.
Jerry Cruse said he saw his stepdaughter around 10 a.m. Thursday when she stopped at the mobile home on Delano’s Lane near Mocksville. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, although she appeared to be suffering from a hangover, he said.
Around 4 p.m. Thursday, Stephen Boyd said, Jerry Cruse called and said he had had received a phone call from Salisbury Police. Drye needed to go to the police station within two hours or police would come looking for her, Cruse said.
So Drye went to the station, along with her 7-month-old son, Stephen Jr., and Stephen Boyd’s mother.
Salisbury Police Chief Mark Wilhelm said Friday that Dr. Boyd was found dead in his bed, bound by his hands and feet. Wilhelm has provided few other details about the crime.
A co-worker found Boyd’s body Thursday morning, and police charged Drye with his murder Thursday night. Cruse said he thinks Dr. Boyd and his stepdaughter had interactions that were beyond professional.
“He’s called up here at 1 o’clock in the morning looking for my daughter,” Jerry Cruse said.
Stephen Boyd said he was not sure if his girlfriend had anything to do with Dr. Boyd’s murder.
“I have no clue,” he said. “I don’t know.”
Jerry Cruse said he is convinced his stepdaughter, who he has helped raise since she was a baby, did not kill Dr. Boyd. She was a small woman, he said, and the dentist could have overpowered her, though police have said Dr. Boyd was bound hand and foot.
“She was probably involved in some way, but which way I couldn’t tell you,” Cruse said. “I know she didn’t kill him.”
Stephen Boyd said Drye thought police might have linked her to the case because she left a prescription on a pool table in Dr. Boyd’s house.
Cruse admits stopping by the dentist’s office Thursday afternoon, saying he was concerned about Dr. Boyd’s promise of money. That’s when he saw police cars.
Drye’s 2- and 3-year-old daughters and infant son are staying with Jerry and Lisa Cruse in Mocksville.
Jerry Cruse said Drye usually spent two nights a week or so with her boyfriend on Old Concord Road, often taking her two youngest children along and leaving the oldest with the Cruses.
Lisa Cruse said Drye was a devoted young mother who had few friends. She dropped out of Davie County High School in the ninth grade, the family said.
Jerry Cruse said he did not have much respect for Dr. Boyd.
“I just don’t want everyone to think he was an upstanding citizen, because he wasn’t,” Cruse said.
“I’ve been telling her she needs to cut ties with him, but it’s too late now.”