Local principal’s death a suicide, report says

Danville Register & Bee
Published: August 5, 2008

Langston Focus School principal Samuel Massie took his own life, according to the North Carolina Department of Health.

The burial transit permit, which allowed Massie’s remains to be moved to Virginia, listed his death as a suicide.

A deputy with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina found Massie’s body face down in a pond off Goose Pond Road near Eden, N.C., shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday, authorities said.

Law enforcement officials believe Massie drowned in the pond. His obituary states that he died Tuesday.

Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor said a family member called the sheriff’s office Tuesday after Massie didn’t show up at the home of another relative.

Family members tried to contact him on a cell phone and they called other friends, he said.

The sheriff’s office treated him like any missing person, Taylor said, adding investigators went to Massie’s bank to see if there had been any financial transactions, but didn’t find any recent withdrawals or deposits.