Adopted son charged with killing father

“At not yet 30 years of age, James “Wes” Weston Goswick had adopted a 10-year-old son.

His friends say he had never married and hardly dated, but after spending a number of years as a Boy Scout leader, he wanted a child of his own.

On Thursday morning, the body of Wes Goswick, 36, was found by Alamance County deputies on the concrete floor of his detached garage after he hadn’t showed up for his job as an industrial pretreatment specialist with the city of Burlington.

His 17-year-old adopted son, Joseph Wayne Cook Goswick, was charged that evening with first-degree murder. The father and son had lived on Brier Lane in Graham, where Wes Goswick’s body was located.

The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office previously identified Joseph Goswick as Wes Goswick’s stepson, though the agency clarified Friday that the 17-year-old suspect was adopted by the victim at age 10.

“Joseph was passed from foster home to foster home,” said Lucas Howard, who became close to Wes Goswick while in his scout troop from age 13 to 18. “He had major issues. Wes fell madly in love with him. He took him in, gave him a life better than he ever had and supported him and took care of him.”

Howard said Joseph Goswick, whom he knew had a troubled past, was moved into a group home a couple years ago because of anger issues his father couldn’t handle. Then he showed signs of progress.

“(Joseph) was doing really well and they all thought he was ready to go home,” Howard said. “He came home about a year ago.”

It was sometime in the last six months, Howard said, that the 17-year-old, who had dropped out of school, moved back out of Wes Goswick’s Brier Lane home.

The Alamance Burlington School System indicated Friday they had no record of Goswick being currently enrolled in school.

THOUGH THE SHERIFF’S office has not determined how long Wes Gowsick had been deceased before his body was found Thursday, Howard said those in the scout community don’t believe anyone else heard from him again after Troop 19’s Tuesday night meeting.

After Alamance County Central Communications received a call from one of Wes Goswick’s colleagues at 9:31 a.m. Thursday, two deputies went to the Brier Lane home to conduct a well-being check.

At the home, the deputies encountered Joseph Goswick and two others, and were told Wes Goswick wasn’t there.

The deputies asked to search the premises and eventually located the body.

Kirk Puckett, spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office, said Wes Goswick’s body was partially covered with a plain blue blanket and bore cuts and scrapes.

The sheriff’s office hasn’t said whether a firearm or other weapon was used in the homicide. An autopsy at the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office is scheduled for Monday morning.

Investigators are continuing to interview others who may have known Wes Goswick.

“As part of any investigation, there are people that were not present the day of the incident that need to be contacted,” Puckett said.

The two others at the home with Joseph Goswick were interviewed and released on Thursday.

Wes Goswick, a native of Virginia Beach, came to Alamance County to attend Elon University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002, the university confirmed Friday.

Howard said Wes Goswick stuck around, “got involved with scouts, plugged in and made a life here.”

He described the scoutmaster as someone who was highly respected in the group.

“He was the most loving, energetic, adventurous, give-his-shirt-off-his-back kind of guy,” Howard said. “He would do anything in the world for anybody who needed help. Which just kind of shows his love for Joseph, someone who had nothing and nobody cared for him. (Wes) scooped him up and cared for him.”

Adopted son charged with killing father had troubled past [The Times News 1/22/16 by Natalie Allison Janicello]

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