Surveillance video led to arrests in Siler City woman's death

Brian Keith Whitfield, 24, and Caleb Shaddie Wyland, 25, both of 3400 Carl Durham Road in Chapel Hill, were each arrested Tuesday on a count of first-degree murder Tuesday in the death of Daphne Forster, 38.

She was last seen leaving her job at Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro on Oct. 9, and her partially burned body was found the next day along Chicken Bridge Road in northern Chatham County.

Although he would not say how, Chatham County Sheriff Richard Webster said Wednesday that Forster knew the suspects and that surveillance video connected the men to Forster's 1995 Chevrolet Cavalier, which was found outside a Super 8 hotel on Guess Road in Durham early Monday.

"It's tragic that Daphne died in this situation, but it's always good to get the suspects," Webster said. "We feel pretty confident that these are the people that committed the crime."

Investigators, however, still don't have a motive for the crime, Webster said.

Forster's father, Jerry Forster, of Oregon, said he doesn't know how his daughter knew Whitfield or Wyland.

"It's just a total shock," he said. "It's very frustrating that we don't know all the details of why this happened."

Jerry Forster said his daughter was a kind woman who loved to travel and had recently moved to Siler City from Oregon.

She leaves behind her two sisters and parents.

"Children are supposed to bury you. You're not supposed to bury your children," Jerry Forster said. "Nothing compares to the loss of your child."