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Unsealed FBI Warrant Reveals Investigation Of Man Suspected In Deaths Of Multiple Elderly Women
An unsealed FBI warrant in a still-sealed federal case has revealed the agency is looking into whether a North Carolina man has, per his alleged confession, killed as many as four people — including two elderly women.
A federal search warrant unsealed this week reveals new information about the investigation into the disappearances of two elderly women in the Carolinas.
The FBI applied for a search warrant for the former Bostick, North Carolina property of Daniel Printz, 59, on Feb. 23, 2022, and executed it on Feb. 28, according to court records reviewed by Oxygen.com. The application for the search warrant revealed that Printz — who currently faces seven federal firearms charges and was initially arrested on a Greenville, South Carolina warrant for grand larceny — is a suspect in the disappearances of two elderly women in Greenville and Charlotte, and allegedly confessed to multiple killings.
In the warrant application, the FBI agent in charge of the case noted that the investigations into Printz began shortly after Edna Suttles, 80, and her 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee disappeared from her home in Travelers Rest around Aug. 27, 2021. Her car was located on Sept. 3, 2021, parked in a Best Western hotel parking lot in the town.
Suttles herself has never been located.
The Greenville County Sheriff's Office reviewed surveillance camera footage from the hotel parking lot, an antique store near Suttles' home and a nearby Food Lion and discovered what may have been the last footage of her alive. They say that, around 9:22 a.m. on the day that Suttles went missing, a Chevrolet Cruze registered to Printz's wife in North Carolina parked at the Travelers Rest Food Lion, and a man later identified as Printz got out, went inside, purchased a package of yogurt — scanning his frequent shopper card — and exited.
While Printz was in the store, the sheriff's office says, Suttles parked her SUV outside next to Printz's car and, when Printz emerged, he "gestured" at her, retrieved a small bag from his car and got into her SUV. They drove off shortly thereafter.
Around 1:45 p.m. that afternoon, surveillance cameras captured the SUV leaving Suttles' home and returning to the Food Lion, where the driver parked it near the back of the lot around 2:00 p.m.. Printz allegedly emerged from the driver's seat, walked to his car and moved it closer to the SUV. Then, law enforcement says, Printz "assisted with the transfer of Suttles to his vehicle." (In a footnote, the warrant notes that "Due to Printz parking in the far end of the parking lot and partial obstruction of a vehicle, it is difficult to discern how much assistance Suttles required to transfer between vehicles." Her missing persons report noted that she was five feet tall and weighed around 170 pounds.)
Law enforcement says that Printz left Suttles in his hot car for around 15 minutes — temperatures were around 90 degrees at the time — and drove her SUV to the adjacent Best Western parking lot (where it was discovered a week later). The surveillance cameras there allegedly captured him "wiping down both the interior and exterior of Suttle's vehicle" before walking back down to the Food Lion.
At 2:14 p.m., police say, Printz drove out of the Food Lion with "an apparently motionless Suttles."
Because they had footage of him taking Suttles' car and were able to identify him by his Food Lion frequent shopper card, the Greenville County Sheriff's Office obtained an arrest warrant for Printz on grand larceny charges, and the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina arrested him and executed a North Carolina search warrant at his property in Bostick.
Firearms discovered during the search led to state (and now) federal firearms charges against Printz.
During that search, a North Carolina driver's license, passport and bank statements belonging to a Nancy Rego, 66, were discovered. Rego's ATM card was found in Printz's wallet at the time of his arrest.
Rego had been missing from Charlotte since Nov. 8, 2017, according to the Department of Justice's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Printz allegedly told investigators that he had been given power of attorney by the 66-year-old woman, whom her family said had been in a romantic relationship with Printz before her disappearance. (Investigators found a copy of the paperwork on file with Mecklenburg County.)
However, none of her family members had heard from Rego directly in nearly four years: though they'd received emails and texts purportedly from her, she had refused to meet or speak with anyone who knew her in that time.
Printz's wife, questioned at the time of the search, said that he normally drove a Jeep Renegade — which, like the Cruze, she had bought and registered in her own name — but its air conditioning was being serviced at the dealer. She told investigators that, while she normally used the Cruze, Printz had borrowed in on a Friday morning "several weeks prior" and returned it to her around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. (The day on which Suttles disappeared was a Friday, two weeks before the search warrant was executed.)
Printz's Jeep Renegade was discovered at the dealer, where investigators allegedly learned that he had asked about having the "rear interior panels" replaced; the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office seized the vehicle and discovered that the panel designed to cover the spare tire compartment was missing.
On Sept. 23, 2001, sheriff's officers executed another search warrant on Printz's Bostick property related to the disappearances of both Suttles and Rego. They found even more of Rego's bank statements, her credit and debit cards, tax records and even a wallet belonging to Rego's mother, Delores Sellers Gore. (It is unclear from the warrant what investigators believe happened to Ms. Gore.)
Investigators also found bottles of pills prescribed to Rego in 2017, including cyclobenzaprine (a muscle relaxant), tramadol (an opioid pain reliever that, in combination with cyclobenzaprine, can cause coma and death) and Lorazepam (a benzodiazepine more commonly referred to as Ativan, which is known to cause coma and death in combination with tramadol).
The also allegedly found a black bag containing, among other items "zip ties, a Taser, lubricant and crushed pills in a plastic bag labelled Ativan."
On Oct. 9, 2021, a person who was helping Printz's wife on the property found a bee box — used by bee keepers to encourage hive-building and harvest honey — on a remote portion of the property, the warrant said. Opening it, the person allegedly found a woman's purse, rope, zip ties and medication inside. They called the sheriff's office, which executed another search warrant and discovered that the purse belonged to Suttles. They also found her car keys, other items of hers and an empty yogurt container, and noticed a black trash bag, a tarp and a black interior car panel nearby.
The yogurt container was later found to contain traces of cyclobenzaprine, tramadol and Lorazepam.
A cadaver dog brought to the property on Oct. 10 alerted to the presence of human remains where the panel, trash bag and tarp were found, but Suttles' body was not discovered.
Printz, who remains in custody, allegedly admitted in September interviews that he considered Suttles a "friend" and had driven down to see her several times, in August, but claimed that he dropped her at her house after leaving her car at the Best Western.
But in an interview with police after the third search warrant was executed in October, he allegedly told police that he wanted to admit what he called his "sins," to "purge himself" of details that law enforcement didn't know and to "come clean" through an attorney.
"Printz said that he 'hypothetically' assisted a close friend with the euthanasia of a family member," the warrant states. "He then stated, 'That is one body.' The friend then had feelings of remorse and was going to 'tell.' Printz described the friend as the 'second body.'"
"Printz went on to tell investigators of another friend he was trying to help, but who also ended up dying," they added. "Printz did not report the death but instead disposed of the body so he could keep collecting the friend's social security benefits."
He allegedly strongly suggested the fourth body was "someone who tried to rob him," after which he disposed of that person's body in a rural area and cleaned up.
Printz refused to admit to anything about Suttles without a lawyer present, but "stated he could take law enforcement to the location of Suttles 'within three feet,'" the warrant stated.
Though Printz's wife moved to Michigan and sold the property in January, the FBI returned to conduct yet a fourth search on Feb. 28. They didn't find anything.
The warrants in Printz's federal gun cases remain sealed. Though he was arrested in North Carolina, records from Spartanburg, South Carolina Sheriff's Office reflect that the Marshal's Service transferred him into their custody on Wednesday — the day after the federal search warrant was unsealed in North Carolina.
