During the investigation it was determined a man’s body was “dumped near New Found Gap,” the Cherokee Indian Police Department reported in a Facebook post. The body was located and recovered.
Street View image from July 2024. © 2025 Google
Three people have been linked to a body found “dumped” along a scenic road through the Great Smoky Mountains, according to police in western North Carolina.
Investigators suspect the man was killed late Dec. 19 or early Dec. 20, in nearby Cherokee, which is home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
The Cherokee Indian Police Department says it was alerted by a vague tip “about a person being shot at an unknown location, by an unknown person.”
“Through the investigation it was determined that Thomas Pheasant Jr. was shot and had sustained multiple gunshot wounds at a residence,” Cherokee police reported in a Dec. 24 news release.
“The victim’s body was taken from the residence and dumped near New Found Gap. The body was located and recovered.”
Timothy Jason McCoy was named a suspect in the killing and arrested, police said. McCoy is charged with homicide in first degree, assault with deadly weapon and assault by pointing a gun, police said.
A motive was not released and investigators have not revealed how McCoy was linked to the shooting.
Two other people are accused of being accessories: Derrick Jenkins and Victoria Thompson are charged with accessory after the fact and obstruction of governmental functions, police said.
Investigators did not provide specifics of where the body was found, but New Found Gap is a low point in the Smoky Mountains and the overlook is a popular tourist destination in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The gap is accessed by a Newfound Gap Road, which connects Cherokee to Gatlinburg on the Tennessee side of the park.
The shooting happened at a home on Galamore Road, a rural dead-end just south of the park’s North Carolina boundary, maps show.
Cherokee is about a 180-mile drive northwest from uptown Charlotte.
Mark Price
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