Homicide suspect arrested inWatauga County

By Melanie Davis
melanie@highcountrymedia.net

A double homicide suspect from Yadkin County was apprehended by Watauga County sheriff’s deputies in the early morning hours of Dec. 4 on U.S. 421 near Hardin Road.
An alert was issued by the sheriff’s office in Yadkin County for a white Chevrolet Ventura van heading north toward Watauga and Ashe counties. The call stemmed from a reported double homicide, which occurred sometime between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., when communications in Yadkin received the 911 call.
A Watauga County deputy spotted a white van just before 3 a.m. driving with only one headlight on. As the deputy turned to follow the vehicle, the officer confirmed the license plate number to be the same as the Ventura.
Procedure for a “high risk” traffic stop was executed due to the driver possibly being the double homicide suspect. Two additional deputies were called and the three stopped the van. The suspect, Robert Lane Main, was taken into custody without incident.
“I am very pleased with the professional manner in which the deputies handled this potentially dangerous stop,” Capt. Kelly Redmond of the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office said.
A search of the van revealed a 12-gauge shotgun in the floor behind the passenger seat. The firearm was secured by the officers, and Main was detained until Yadkin County sheriff’s deputies arrived to transport him back to Yadkin County.
Main is a suspect in the murders of his wife, Linda Kathleen Main, 47, at the couple’s home, and a neighbor, Mitchell Todd Stimpson, 40, who was killed in his home next door, on U.S. 601 just north of the Davie County border in Yadkin County.
Linda Main was discovered after Robert Main’s elderly mother, who lived with the couple, awoke due to the gunshot.
She drove to her grandson’s house nearby and called 911 to report the first shooting.
As officers arrived on scene, Stimpson’s daughter, 13, discovered her father’s body. Deputies heard her scream from the driveway that separates the two homes.
Immediately after officers arrived at the scene, another Yadkin deputy had pulled a vehicle over with Robert Main as the driver in a routine traffic stop. At that time, Main had not yet been determined a suspect and was released. The initial stop is how investigators knew Main’s direction of travel to alert Ashe and Watauga county officers.
Main remains in the Yadkin County Jail without bond. He has been charged with two counts of first degree murder and one count of first degree burglary.
The Mains are former residents of Watauga County.