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Maria Cerra walks her dog, Taz, by the house at in the 2700 block of Mossy Meadow Drive in High Point on Monday. The house was the scene of a murder-suicide on Jan. 7 that left three adults and two juveniles dead. Intercom Handset

No trespassing signs are posted outside the house in 2700 block of Mossy Meadow Drive in High Point where three adults and two juveniles died. 

High Point Police Chief J. Travis Stroud speaks at a press conference Monday about the murder-suicide at a house on Mossy Meadow Drive in High Point on Jan. 7.

HIGH POINT — Calls by neighbors to 911 early Saturday show the urgency with which a young man and woman tried to get help after escaping a home where five people would die by gunfire that morning.

A 23-year-old man and 25-year-old woman quickly ran from the home on Mossy Meadow Drive without time to grab warm clothes or anything else. He was wearing shorts, and she was wearing a shirt, shorts and socks, neighbors told 911 dispatchers as they relayed alarming information from the couple.

“Somebody was shot in the house,” one neighbor told a dispatcher.

In one of the 911 calls, the man tells a neighbor that the person with the gun is his father. Police have not released the names of the man, who they confirmed was a relative, or the woman.

According to High Point police, 45-year-old Robert Jeffrey Crayton Jr. shot his wife, Athalia A. Crayton, 46, and Kasin Crayton, 18, in their home in the 2700 block of Mossy Meadow Drive. Also killed were a 10- and 16-year-old, who police said they would not identify because of their ages.

Several different neighbors were willing to call police on the pair’s behalf, but no one felt comfortable enough to allow them inside. They stood on one resident’s porch until the first police officers arrived on scene.

A couple of neighbors used a camera/intercom system to communicate with the pair, while another opened a window instead of the front door to talk with them.

One woman told a dispatcher that the couple — who was ringing her doorbell — was saying that someone was trying to kill them. “They’re going house-to-house right now,” she said. “They just left our house and they are in front of our neighbors, knocking, I’m assuming.”

In what appears to be the last home where they stop, the woman who called 911 relays questions from the dispatcher. The young man outside says the man with the gun is his father. He’s then asked if his father still has the gun.

“He’s sure that he still has the gun,” the caller tells the dispatcher. “He (the man who escaped) pulled the magazine out.”

When asked about the type of gun, the man said he didn’t know.

As the sound of sirens could be heard in the background, the young woman on the porch told the neighbor that she was the man’s girlfriend.

The pair was then asked if they knew who was shot.

“No, they don’t know who was shot,” the caller told the dispatcher just seconds before officers arrived.

When asked during a news conference Monday about a timeline of events, Lt. Patrick Welch said police believe that the shootings inside the home were “occurring around that same time” the two adults fled. Determining a more specific timeline is part of the investigation, he said.

Welch said a lot of people are asking why this happened “and, unfortunately, at least at this point, we don’t know.”

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Maria Cerra walks her dog, Taz, by the house at in the 2700 block of Mossy Meadow Drive in High Point on Monday. The house was the scene of a murder-suicide on Jan. 7 that left three adults and two juveniles dead.

No trespassing signs are posted outside the house in 2700 block of Mossy Meadow Drive in High Point where three adults and two juveniles died. 

High Point Police Chief J. Travis Stroud speaks at a press conference Monday about the murder-suicide at a house on Mossy Meadow Drive in High Point on Jan. 7.

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