A North Carolina family is mourning the deaths of a mother, her husband and their 20-year-old daughter after police found all three dead inside their Rocky Mount home during a welfare check.
Officers arrived at the Kingsway Mobile Home Park around 10:45 a.m. Monday, after someone requested the check.
They found Tracey Swann, her husband Kenny Swann, and Mahala Scurlock, whom Tracey had adopted, dead inside the home, relatives told WRAL News. Police have not determined how they died and said there is no threat to nearby residents.
Investigators are examining whether a generator had been running inside the home and produced dangerous carbon monoxide fumes. The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the official cause of death.
Police Chief Martin McCoy Sr. said investigators are considering every possibility but do not suspect foul play.
“We’re looking at every angle,” McCoy said.
‘I Smell Death’
Family members became concerned when Tracey failed to show up for a planned shopping trip on Saturday. By Sunday, she still had not answered the door when a relative came to check on her.
When a family member returned Monday, she told Crisp, “I smell death.” Police then entered the home and discovered the three bodies. Three dogs were also inside.
The circumstances have left the family struggling to understand how they lost three people at once.
Elizabeth Scurlock, Tracey and Kenny’s niece, remembered them as people who consistently cared for others.
“They would give you the clothes off their back if they could. They meant — they mean the world to us,” she told WRAL. “This is still very hard for us, and we’re just trying to process this.”
Family Blames City
The family’s final days have raised questions about their living conditions. Krista Crisp, one of Tracey’s daughters, told the news outlet that the family’s electricity had recently been disconnected after they fell behind on a utility bill.
Crisp said the bill had climbed above $2,000. Tracey was the only member of the household working, and according to Crisp, her mother tried to make partial payments.
The city, however, would only accept the full balance, she said. Rocky Mount had recently resumed charging late fees and disconnecting service for customers with unpaid bills.
Police have not confirmed that the power shutoff caused the deaths. Chief McCoy said the family’s utility history is not part of the police investigation and indicated that questions about the account would need to be addressed with the city’s utilities department.
The city did not immediately answer questions about when officials disconnected the family’s electricity, whether the family had made any payments, or how long the account had remained unpaid.
Repeated Cycles
The utility questions are not entirely new for Rocky Mount. State lawmakers have already been examining the city’s handling of its utility system and finances.
State Sens. Lisa Barnes, Buck Newton, and Tim Moffitt introduced legislation in May that would restrict Rocky Mount from using electric and natural gas revenues for unrelated city expenses. The proposal followed a state review of the city’s finances and months of scrutiny surrounding its utility operations.
The deaths now add another layer to those concerns. Lawmakers have been seeking greater accountability over how Rocky Mount manages utility revenue and customer accounts, while the circumstances surrounding the Swann family’s power shutoff raise questions about how the city handles overdue balances, payment arrangements, and disconnections.
The city has not yet provided answers about the Swanns’ account, including when officials disconnected their electricity, whether the family had paid any portion of the balance, or how long the bill had remained overdue.
Black Americans Feeling the Pinch
The deaths come as new economic data points to growing financial pressure among Black households. A Federal Reserve survey found that more than two in five U.S. adults worried about finding or keeping a job in 2025, up from 37 percent the year before. Black adults reported an even sharper decline in their financial well-being.
The survey found that the percentage of Black adults who said they were “doing okay” or “living comfortably” fell by nearly five percentage points in 2025, reaching 60 percent. That marked the lowest level recorded in the survey since 2015.
Black workers also reported more layoffs. The share who experienced job loss rose by about three percentage points from 2024 to 2025, the largest increase among racial and ethnic groups surveyed. Black adults were more than twice as likely as white, non-Hispanic adults to report layoffs.
Those pressures have also affected families’ ability to cover basic expenses. More than 77 percent of Black adults said making ends meet was at least a minor concern for themselves or their families in 2025. That figure increased by about eight percentage points from the previous year.
For the Swann family, questions about the utility shutoff now sit alongside the grief of losing three relatives. Investigators have not established a cause of death, and officials have not said whether the family’s financial circumstances played a direct role.
