A Wilkes county soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. We learned from family members today that 36-year old Larry John Baugess was killed yesterday. Grady Johnson tells us Baugess was coming out of a meeting and was apparently caught in crossfire between two groups. The Department of Defense has not yet released details concerning his death, but it’s routine for there to be a period of one to two days between the time family is notified and DoD putting out a news release. Funeral services are pending.

A local business suffered more than 26-thousand dollars in damage, and the owner believes he knows who did it. Ronald Burchett called sheriff deputies Friday afternoon. He said an ex-employee, who had been fired a few days earlier for stealing Gatorade from the storage room, came back Friday to pick up his final check.



The man was left alone in the showrrom of the business, Burchette Hardwood Floors, for between 3 and 5 minutes, while the check was made out to give to him. During that time, no other customers or employees went on the showroom floor. Right after the man left, one of the employees noticed nearly all the samples in the showroom had been keyed, as someone might do to a car.



While the man was the only person known to be on the showroom floor at that time, there was no security video. Deputies know the man’s name, and are trying to contact him for questioning. His name is not being released because he has not yet been charged with a crime.