Graybeal Faces Murder Charges In Shooting Death Of His Estranged Wife

A Bluff City, Tenn., man who suffered a disfiguring gunshot wound to his head now faces trial on murder charges in the shooting death of his estranged wife.

The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday arrested Randy Keith Graybeal, 54, of Timber Ridge Road in Bluff City, and charged him with one count of first-degree murder.

Graybeal is accused of shooting his wife, Angela Dawn Graybeal, 38, on Oct. 28 before turning the gun on himself in what investigators have called a “homicide and an attempted suicide that is domestic related.”

Graybeal is being held without bond in the Sullivan County Jail pending a court hearing, the Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement issued Wednesday.

“I hope he goes to jail, I really do, because that’s where he deserves to be,” said Teresa Cupps, a woman who worked with Angela Graybeal prior to the shooting and described herself as being “one of her best friends.”

Randy Graybeal married Angela on June 7, 2007, and the two lived in a house he owned on Timber Ridge Road, a three-mile-long rural road that loops around a large hill southeast of downtown Bluff City.

On May 30, the Graybeals bought 15 acres of land on the other side of the hill. The couple planned to build a new home on the property, their neighbors said, and Randy Graybeal was seen tending to the land whenever he had time off from his job as a bricklayer.

Although it seemed an idyllic relationship, the Sheriff’s Office answered a series of 9-1-1 calls referencing domestic disputes at the residence near the end of July. These calls hint at what Angela Graybeal’s friends said was a pattern of abuse that dominated her marriage.

Randy and Angela Graybeal both called 9-1-1 from their individual cell phones at 8:50 p.m. and 8:51 p.m. July 25 to report a domestic dispute, according to dispatch logs released in November by the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office.

No charges were filed against either person following those calls, said Capt. Keith Elton, which leads people to believe it was not a serious incident.

But on July 29, Randy Graybeal filed for a divorce; and on July 30, Angela Dawn Graybeal called 9-1-1 to ask an officer to wait with her as she picked up her car from the home on Timber Ridge Road.

Angela Graybeal then moved to live with her mother near Elizabethton, said Paul Ditrapani, a man she dated prior to her death. On Wednesday, Ditrapani described Randy Keith Graybeal as being a “violent, crazy individual” who abused his wife.

“He was so possessive,” Ditrapani said. “When she wasn’t with him she was the sweetest girl in the world.”

Ditrapani said Angela Graybeal was afraid of her husband. He also said Randy Graybeal threatened to kill him after he learned of Ditrapani’s relationship with Angela Graybeal.

Cupps, who worked with Angela Graybeal for about a year, told a similar story about the relationship. People could hear Randy Graybeal yelling at his wife while the two spoke on the phone, Cupps said, and she often saw Angela Graybeal coming in to work with bruises and marks on her arms.

“She was afraid of him,” Cupps said. “You could tell there was something going on that shouldn’t have happened.”

Cupps was not surprised when she heard Graybeal had been charged with first-degree murder. Neither was Ditrapani, who said he was with Angela Graybeal the night before she died.

After she stayed at his house for a few weeks, Ditrapani said, Angela Graybeal decided to move into a house in the Hamilton community, between Elizabethton, Tenn., and Roane Mountain.

Angela Graybeal had left several personal items and family heirlooms at the house on Timber Ridge Road, Ditrapani said, and she was trying to get them back for fear her ex-husband would sell them.

“I knew it was going to be bad,” Ditrapani said, adding that he tried to talk her out of going back to the house.

Ditrapani said he called Angela Graybeal repeatedly on her cell phone but she never answered. When she didn’t come home that night, he said, he knew something terrible had happened.

Shortly after 9:30 a.m. Oct. 29, Sullivan County sheriff’s deputy Ricky Rumley found Angela Dawn Graybeal lying on her back in the Timber Ridge home. Randy Graybeal was lying on the floor near his wife, still alive, but with a severe head wound.

Behind Randy Graybeal was a shotgun.

Randy Graybeal was transported to the Johnson City Medical Center. His wife was pronounced dead at the scene.

“When I found out what happened,” Ditrapani said. “I was just like, sweet God, I knew that was going to happen.”

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