Son held on $3M bond in father's slaying

Bill Burroughs' wife had returned from church on July 12 when she found him dead inside their home on Red Cedar Circle. Police said he had been stabbed to death.

Cheo Burroughs, 35, of Buffalo, N.Y., was arrested a week later – immediately after his father's funeral – and was charged with murder in the slaying.

Prosecutors said Monday that Cheo Burroughs had a volatile relationship with his father and that Bill Burroughs had recently told his son he would no longer support him financially.

Neighbors in the Treyburn development in north Durham said they saw a car with New York license plates in the area the day Bill Burroughs was slain, prosecutors said.

Bill Burroughs, 64, played basketball at St. Augustine's College in the mid-1960s. He later served as national president of the college's alumni association and as alumni representative to the college's board of trustees.

He spent his career as a youth counselor in the Northeast before retiring to Durham. He ran the campaigns of two elected officials in Durham – City Councilwoman Cora-Cole McFadden and Board of Education Chairwoman Minnie Forte-Brown.

Prosecutors said they don't plan to seek the death penalty in the case.