By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Rowan investigators reveal in detailed search warrants that a ceramic bowl from Joyce Ann Trexler’s own kitchen was used to bludgeon her to death. The 75-year-old woman was found with cuts to her face and head.

Curtis Wayne Trexler, her grandson, is charged with murder.

The search warrants, issued by the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, were obtained by the Post Wednesday.

The warrants say detectives received a cheek swab for DNA from Curtis Trexler, 31, who remains in the Rowan County jail without bond. Investigators also requested any of Curtis Trexler’s medical records from Novant Health Rowan Medical Center and performed a search of five cell phones.

According to the warrants, all of the phones belong to Curtis Trexler, and family members told them Joyce Trexler did not own or use a cell phone. The phones were found in his bedroom and throughout the house where he’d been staying with his grandmother for about six months.

Rowan investigators went to Joyce Trexler’s home at 295 Ellis Loop Road on July 18 after the county’s 911 center received a call from someone frantically asking for help. Authorities said Curtis Trexler made that call, and in it he described his grandmother as looking like she had been “brutally murdered.”

Curtis Trexler was charged with killing Joyce Trexler.

Sheriff Kevin Auten has said Curtis Trexler did not confess and he was also untruthful with investigators. Auten said during press conference the home was not burglarized or ransacked, which warrants confirm.

He also said Trexler had been in the county jail before and his only visitor was his grandmother, Joyce Trexler.

When sheriff’s investigators arrived July 18 at the Ellis Loop Road home, Curtis Trexler was being seen by EMS for a “fainting episode,” the warrant said.

Investigators believed Joyce Trexler was first assaulted in her bedroom, but the warrant does not say how or with what weapon. She made her way into the kitchen, but was hit in the face and the head with a ceramic bowl that was sitting on her kitchen table.

“The victim was struck with enough force that the ceramic bowl broke into pieces that contributed to the jagged injuries to the victim’s head,” the warrant said.

The assailant would’ve injured his hand as a result of “continuing to use the damaged and jagged bowl as a weapon,” the warrant said.

The warrant said it’s likely because of the amount of blood on the floor that the killer would’ve tracked blood in the home. Investigators found bloody “un-shoed” footprints in the home. The size of the footprints matched that of a person who wore size 10 shoes, which the warrant said matched Curtis Trexler.

They also found footprints at Discount Mart, 3381 Old Mocksville Road, at the corner of East Ridge Road.

Curtis Trexler told investigators he’d walked to the store early that morning to buy cigarettes, realized the store was closed and returned home. He said when he got home, he found his grandmother dead.

An investigator walked to the store and discovered it took two minutes and 34 seconds to walk there.

A security video from the store showed Curtis Trexler walk up to the store at 5:01 a.m. In the video Trexler could be seen with blood on his already-bandaged right hand. He was only wearing socks in the video.

According to 911 records, Trexler made the call to 911 at 5:04 a.m. from a cordless phone in the house.

The warrant also said there were blood stains on the floor and walls throughout the home. While talking to Curtis Trexler, investigators noted he had fresh cuts on his hands and was wearing only socks on his feet. The warrant did not say whether his socks were clean or had blood on them.

Investigators interviewed family and a friend of Curtis Trexler and discovered he had a problem with drugs and has often “stolen money from the financial cards of several members of his family to include the victim Joyce Trexler,” the warrant said.

In interviews, investigators said Curtis Trexler is a heroin user and goes to a methodone clinic in Salisbury for treatment. His drug abuse has been a constant concern of his family for several years.

Curtis Trexler remains in the Rowan County jail without bond.

Contact reporter Shavonne Walker at 704-797-4253.