Order Of Reconciliation Filed 26 Hours After Shooting Reported At Bluff City Home

BRISTOL, Tenn. – On Thursday morning, 26 hours after a shooting was reported at their Bluff City home, a document was filed in Chancery Court giving Angela Dawn Graybeal and Randy Keith Graybeal a chance to get back together.

The order of reconciliation received by the Bristol Clerk and Master’s Office at 11:20 a.m. suspended the couple’s pending divorce and gave them six months to “resume living together as husband and wife.”

But as the document was filed, Randy Graybeal remained in critical condition in the Johnson City Medical Center’s intensive care unit. His wife had been pronounced dead the day before, after Sullivan County Sheriff’s deputies found them both on the floor of their home at 540 Timber Ridge Road with gunshot wounds.

The Sheriff’s Office received a 9-1-1 call from the Graybeal’s home at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Angela Dawn Graybeal, 38, was found lying dead on her back, according to a report filed by Deputy Ricky Rumley.

Randy Keith Graybeal, 54, was found lying on the floor just a few feet away from his wife with a gunshot wound to the face. Deputies also found a shotgun lying on the floor behind Randy Graybeal, according to Rumley’s report, which was released Thursday.

Authorities declined to release details about their investigation Thursday, or about what might have happened at the Graybeal home.

Rumley’s report and the order of reconciliation, which Chancellor E.G. Moody signed before the Clerk and Master stamped it Thursday, are two of several publicly available documents that shed some light into the Graybeals’ lives.

Also among those documents are the couple’s original divorce filing and a series of deeds signifying loans that Randy Graybeal took against the home on Timber Ridge Road. Another loan, signed by both of the Graybeals, was used to buy 15 acres just over the ridge, land that friends said Randy Graybeal intended as the site of a new home he planned to build himself.

Two months after he and his wife bought the land, Randy Graybeal filed for the divorce, on July 29. He cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the proceeding, and as part of the filing he scheduled a hearing where he would ask a judge to declare him the sole legal occupant of the couple’s home.

The filing makes no mention of who would take possession of the acreage at 1030 Timber Ridge Road or who would be responsible for that mortgage once the divorce was finalized.

But Misty Hagaman, who lives across the street from the Graybeals, said Wednesday that Angela Graybeal, after she moved out, had “started saying she was going to take [that property] away” as part of the divorce proceedings.

The order of reconciliation on file at the Clerk and Master’s Office would have stopped those proceedings and given the Graybeals a chance to make amends without making either spouse forgive or condone “any prior misconduct” or keep them from continuing their divorce proceedings if things didn’t go well.

But none of that mattered Wednesday morning, when Olin Morris stopped by the Graybeals’ house at 540 Timber Ridge Road and immediately dialed 9-1-1 from his cell phone. Morris was a friend of Randy Graybeal’s and the man who sold him the 15 acres.

In the police report, Rumley wrote that “Olan [sic] Morris had called and said he was at 540 Timber Ridge Road and there was blood on the sidewalk and Mrs. Graybeal was lying in [sic] the floor.”

Randy Keith and Angela Dawn Graybeal were married June 4, 2007.

Court records indicated that at that time, Randy Graybeal had two mortgages on the home, totaling $142,039. The current balances on those loans were not available in the court record.

He’d bought the home and its 4.42-acre lot for $15,000 on March 10, 1998. State tax records indicate the property’s current value is about $109,800.

After the marriage, the couple together secured a loan for $101,705 to buy the land from Morris, closing the purchase May 30.

Neighbors and friends of the couple said Wednesday that it was Randy Graybeal’s dream to build a new house on the property as soon as he was able to sell his current home.

The mailbox in front of the new property has his name on it. There is a new fence along the front, and the driveway is lined with trees that still have tags on them. There’s also a concrete pad where he was seen recently installing a fountain.

“I asked him not too long ago when he was going to get his house up,” said Richard Vance, who lives across the street. “He said, ‘One of these days.’ “

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518