News

Court orders Shepherd residence auctioned on courthouse steps

The Kenmure home of the late Tom Shepherd and Melody Shepherd is scheduled to be auctioned on the courthouse steps on March 8. [HENDERSON COUNTY TAX OFFICE PHOTO]

By Lightning Reports, Published: February 28, 2022

Financial troubles continue to mount for the last surviving Shepherd to manage the shuttered funeral home.

A lender has foreclosed on the residence of Melody Shepherd, the widow of Thomas R. “Tom” Shepherd, the third generation owner of the funeral home and cemetery business that started in 1903. Sale of the property on the courthouse steps is scheduled for next month.
The North Carolina Board of Funeral Service shut down the funeral home in December when it revoked the funeral director license of Tom Shepherd and the crematory manager permit of Melody Shepherd. In November, a Superior Court judge granted a motion by the N.C. Cemetery Commission to put Shepherd Memorial Park into receivership because of numerous consumer complaints and management and upkeep problems.
Court documents show that Tom and Melody Shepherd signed a promissory note for $333,000 for an equity line of credit on their home at 111 Fawncrest Court in Kenmure in February 2009. By last Dec. 1 the couple had fallen behind on payments by $6,191, having failed to pay since May 10, a default analyst for the lender, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co., said in an affidavit.
The court-ordered sale of the property on the Grove Street Courthouse steps is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 8. The 3,867-square-foot home built in 1996 on a two-acre lot has an assessed value of $949,000.

Efforts to reach Melody Shepherd, who is listed as the owner of the home, have been unsuccessful. Her attorney, Michael Edney, in response to a question via text about whether he had legal means available to prevent the auction, said, "I am looking at different options, yes."