Sheremy Dillard was the inaugural head coach of the Felton Grove High School girls basketball team. She held a similar role at Carrboro High School for 17 years.
ABC11
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
A Raleigh man will face a first-degree murder charge after a high school girls basketball coach was found dead with stab wounds — and he was found in Pennsylvania, the Raleigh Police Department said Friday night.
Rickey Harper, 60, is accused of killing his girlfriend, Sheremy Gwenette Dillard. Dillard was a recovery teacher and the head coach of the girls’ basketball team at Felton Grove High School in Apex, the school’s inaugural head coach after it opened in August 2025. Dillard was 57.
Harper was taken into custody Friday afternoon by the Plymouth Township Police Department in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Raleigh police said. His arrest culminated a two-and-a-half hour search in which police said Flock cameras “provided investigative leads that helped identify the suspect.”
Family members told police Friday they had not heard from Dillard, police said. Officers were dispatched at 12:18 p.m. to a residence on Whistling Straits Way where Dillard’s family said she lived with Harper, her boyfriend.
Police found Dillard dead inside the residence with injuries “consistent with those sustained in a stabbing,” police said. Harper was not at the residence when police arrived.
From there, police gathered evidence at the scene and used Flock cameras to identify Harper, police said. The News & Observer has previously reported on the scope of data Flock cameras can collect, prompting some North Carolina towns and cities to cancel their contracts amid community backlash and privacy concerns.
Harper was found in Pennsylvania at 2:45 p.m. Raleigh police’s investigation is ongoing.
‘We will support one another’
Dillard was also the inaugural head coach of the girls’ basketball team at Carrboro High School when it opened in 2007. She coached the Jaguars for 17 years, winning the Northern Lakes Athletic Conference Coach of Year in 2023.
In a Friday letter to families, Felton Grove principal Robert Morrison confirmed Dillard’s death, listing counseling resources and tips for parents to talk to their children about grief and loss.
“We have staff available at the school to assist our students in coping with this loss,” Morrison wrote. “We will work together as a unified school community and we will support one another as we process this loss and navigate this challenging time together.”
In a statement to ABC11, The N&O’s newsgathering partner, a Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools spokesperson said Dillard left a “profound legacy of class, grace, wisdom and dedicated service” at Carrboro High.
““She treated Jaguar players, coaches and colleagues like family, while never hesitating to engage in the hard conversations needed to advocate for equity and do what was best for our students and community,” the spokesperson said. “Many of our current Jaguar staff and students had strong relationships with Coach Dillard, and as our community begins to process this loss, we will rely on each other for the needed support at this sad time.”
This story was originally published August 15, 2026 at 10:18 AM.
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Twumasi Duah-Mensah is a Breaking News Reporter for The News & Observer. He began at The N&O as a summer intern on the metro desk. Triangle born and Tar Heel bred, Twumasi has bylines for WUNC, NC Health News and the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media. Send him tips and good tea places at (919) 283-1187.