A woman was pulled into a van south of Raeford, punched in the eye, cut with a knife and then pushed out onto the roadside near a cemetery, according to the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies found her lying in the grass near an intersection along Oakdale Gin Road close to Highland Biblical Gardens Cemetery, and she was taken to a hospital with what investigators described as minor injuries. Two men remain unaccounted for, and the sheriff’s office says it believes the attack was an isolated incident.
The account comes from a news release the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office issued Monday, as first reported by The Charlotte Observer. According to that reporting, the woman was grabbed and forced into a blue or black van driven by one man while an unknown second male attacked her inside the vehicle, striking her in the eye and cutting her with a knife before she was shoved out onto the road. She later met with detectives to describe what happened. Raeford sits roughly 90 miles southwest of downtown Raleigh, per the same report.
Investigators say the attack happened Saturday south of Raeford, and the sheriff’s office has stated there is no immediate threat to the public. Beyond the van’s dark color and the presence of two men, no suspect descriptions or additional vehicle details have been released. The sheriff’s office has not disclosed a motive for the attack.
A Rural County Still Grappling With Violent Crime
Hoke County is a largely rural jurisdiction of roughly 56,900 residents as of 2025, with Raeford serving as its county seat and commercial center, according to USAFacts. A 2025 profile from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety found the county recorded 240 total violent crimes in 2023, with aggravated assault making up 90.8% of those offenses. Separately, statistics published by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation show the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office investigated 1,140 total criminal offenses in 2024, including 11 aggravated assaults and 268 burglaries…