Left: Thomas Michael Boone (Town of Marshall). Right: Ryan Ricky Houston (McDowell County Sheriff’s Office).
A multilayered tragedy unfolded in North Carolina earlier this month when a recently retired police chief died along with a murder suspect in a crash on a highway. A third person was also later confirmed to have been killed in relation to those same ill-fated events.
On Aug. 1, Ryan Ricky Houston, 41, was on the run from authorities.
He never would be caught.
And amid the fiery wreckage of the ignominious blaze that took his life, Houston took another one with him — a three-plus-decade veteran of law enforcement who spent his final years in charge of a police department for a tiny town in the broader Asheville metro area.
The inciting incident occurred at a residence in McDowell County just before midnight on the night in question.
There, Houston is presumed to be the perpetuator of a home invasion that resulted in the theft of a rifle and a vehicle — as well as a broken nose and facial fractures sustained by the homeowner. The vehicle was later found abandoned near Exit 90 on U.S. Interstate 40.
Later that morning, Houston is presumed to have stolen a promotional truck from a boat dealership — a blue 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 four-door pickup bearing the words “Skyline Marine” and “Bass Cat.”
But Houston’s crime spree was not yet finished.
As a manhunt ensued throughout the next day, the truck would be abandoned in favor of a Jaguar — also stolen. The sports car eventually collided with another vehicle late on Aug. 2, just before 11 p.m.
Houston burned to death as a result of the crash on Interstate 26, a Tarheel State byway, near Exit 11 in Madison County.
Thomas Michael Boone, 54, also died in that crash. He previously worked in law enforcement for 32 years, with stints as an officer with the Burnsville Police Department and, finally, as the police chief of the Marshall Police Department. He retired two days before he died.
“This is a terrible tragedy for several communities and families,” McDowell County Sheriff Ricky T. Buchanan said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved. I appreciate the collective efforts from our local, state and federal law enforcement partners on this ongoing investigation.”
Later, authorities revealed the wanted man had initially been traveling in his black, four-door Mercedes — at speeds in excess of 100 mph and evading a highway patrol officer who clocked his speed — when he crashed into a tractor-trailer on Interstate 40. Inside the vehicle was Malerie Lauren Cauble Crisp, 41. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead from several stab wounds.
“She was stabbed to death,” Buchanan told Asheville-based ABC and MyNetworkTV affiliate WLOS. “As to when that happened — whether it was just prior to the accident or whether it was during the accident or right after the accident — we’re still trying to work through those fine details and button that up.”
A GoFundMe for Crisp’s funeral expenses remembers the slain woman as “a wonderful daughter, mother, sister, and friend to so many” with a “funny, crazy, silly, loving personality” who “will be greatly missed by all that came to know her.”
Malerie Lauren Cauble Crisp (Obituary, GoFundMe).
Well before the chaotic events that left a trail of violence and death across North Carolina’s highways, Houston was in severe legal trouble.
At the time the wanted man began his two-day campaign of criminal last rites, he was out on bond for attempted murder and assaulting law enforcement charges after shooting a Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office deputy in May 2023. Subject to an ankle monitor, the device was turned off or otherwise disabled around 10:03 p.m. on Aug. 1, according to court records obtained by the Citizen Times.
The shooting of the deputy occurred when Houston walked into a jail in downtown Asheville during the early morning hours last spring.
There, he began threatening his wife — who previously accused him of threatening her — and two deputies intervened. Houston pulled out a gun and shot one deputy in the shoulder. The deputy shot back, wounding Houston and sending him to the hospital where he was arrested.
He had been out on bail since Aug. 1, 2023 — after posting $1.5 million bond — but was arrested again on Aug. 7, 2023 for several pre-trial violations. By Aug. 17, 2023, however, Houston obtained his liberty once more — after posting $2.7 million bond, the paper reported.
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