A Thursday night stop in a quiet parking lot behind a southwest Durham elementary school ended in tragedy, and police say the story that followed has not held up.
An 18-year-old Durham man is charged with first-degree murder after his girlfriend, 18-year-old Hailee Maye, was found fatally shot in a car behind Southwest Elementary School in May 2025. Investigators say the boyfriend first claimed Maye accidentally shot herself, but court records describe surveillance footage, search-warrant findings and a tight timeline that tell a very different story.
As reported by The News & Observer, court documents say the couple’s vehicle pulled into the lot at about 7:03 p.m. on May 15, 2025. Roughly 40 minutes later, the suspect is seen leaving the car alone. Investigators say he did not call 911 for more than eight minutes after walking away and was captured on video wiping his socks on a patch of grass two minutes before finally placing the call just before 8 p.m. Search-warrant material states that Maye had been shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
What Investigators Say Does Not Add Up
Durham police say that stretch of unexplained time, along with what they found on video and at the scene, shifted the case from a reported accident to a full-on homicide investigation. According to investigators, the suspect told officers that Maye had been “playing with a gun” in the car when it “went off.” Detectives now say the physical and digital evidence they have collected does not line up with that account…