Episode 188: Allisha Watts – Bite-Sized Crime

When a North Carolina businesswoman disappears, her family must fight for answers. What happened to Allisha Watts?

Episode Media

Allisha Watts and James Dunmore *(WRAL)*

Key locations in Allisha’s case *(WRAL)*

James Dunmore *(Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you the story of a woman whose family refused to give up on justice. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

On July 18, 2023, North Carolina State Troopers pulled into the parking lot of the Anson County Department of Motor Vehicles off Highway 74, a much-visited location for law enforcement officers looking to fill up their gas tanks. On this particular day, the troopers noticed a black Mercedes SUV sitting alone in the parking lot. When they approached, they saw a man in the driver’s seat, his eyes closed and head slumped over. They knocked on the window and were able to rouse the man, who told them that he was just taking a short nap. The troopers left him alone and went back to their patrol.

Three hours later, they returned to the DMV to find the SUV still in the parking lot. This time, the man inside was completely unresponsive. They called for an ambulance, and the man was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation. A police report stated that they believed the man had attempted suicide.

Meanwhile, the family of 39-year-old Allisha Dene Watts was wondering why they hadn’t heard from her. On Friday, July 14th, Allisha had traveled to Charlotte to visit her boyfriend for the weekend. On Sunday the 16th, she and her cousins had tickets to a comedy show in the city. But Allisha didn’t show up for the event, and now she wasn’t answering her phone. Her family was immediately concerned – it wasn’t like Allisha to skip out on her commitments without letting anyone know.

Allisha grew up in Moore County, North Carolina. One of six siblings, Allisha was described as kind and giving, the type of friend who poured herself into others. She was hardworking and driven, determined to make a difference in the world. Allisha had advanced degrees in mental health counseling and psychology, and she volunteered her time with multiple organizations in Moore County. In 2019, she opened her own business. Inspired Visions Support Services provided mental health care to community members with developmental disabilities. By the summer of 2023, Allisha’s business was thriving.

This was a big part of why her family was so concerned that she wasn’t responding to calls and texts. If Allisha had decided to extend her stay in Charlotte, she would have let someone know. When Monday rolled around and Allisha didn’t show up for work, her co-workers were surprised. When she didn’t show up on Tuesday or Wednesday either, they contacted her family to let them know. Something was definitely wrong.

On Wednesday, July 19th, Allisha’s cousin Gwen contacted the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and reported Allisha missing. Gwen told the dispatcher that she lived across the street from Allisha’s boyfriend, 51-year-old James Dunmore. On Sunday morning, as Gwen was leaving for church, she saw Allisha and James leaving in Allisha’s black Mercedes SUV. When Gwen returned home after church, the SUV was back, parked in front of the house, and it stayed there all day Sunday. When Allisha didn’t attend the comedy show that night like she had planned, Gwen was surprised. She and Allisha talked to each other all the time – it was very strange that Allisha hadn’t let her know she wasn’t coming to the event.

Gwen told the dispatcher that in the wee hours of Monday morning, she looked out her window and noticed that the SUV was gone. Allisha lived about two hours east of Charlotte in the town of Foxfire, so Gwen assumed that Allisha must have headed home since she had work that day. But now that she knew Allisha hadn’t shown up to work, Gwen wondered where her cousin had gone.

Gwen also expressed concern about Allisha’s boyfriend. She told the dispatcher that Allisha had only been seeing James Dunmore for a few months, and she didn’t get the best vibes from him, even though he was her neighbor. Gwen had tried to call him when she realized Allisha was missing, but he hadn’t answered the phone. She had even tried going over to his house and knocking on the door, but all she could hear were his dogs barking inside. Gwen told the dispatcher that the whole situation was strange and frightening. “I just didn’t want to wait too late and something is going on.”

The same day Gwen made her report, Allisha’s father contacted the Foxfire Village Police and asked them to do a welfare check at Allisha’s home. Allisha had a dog, and her father was worried that the dog had been left alone for several days. When officers knocked on the door, there was no response, so they forcibly entered the home. Inside, they found Allisha’s dog, but there was no sign of Allisha. The officers secured the dog and let Allisha’s father know that his daughter wasn’t home.

On Thursday, July 20th, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police contacted the Foxfire Village Police to let them know that Allisha Watts had been reported missing from Charlotte. Foxfire police stated that they had done a welfare check at Allisha’s home but had not been able to make contact with her. The final piece of the puzzle came when detectives at the Anson County Sheriff’s Office learned of Allisha’s missing persons report. Allisha had last been seen driving a black 2023 Mercedes Benz GLC 300 – the same make and model of the SUV parked at the Anson County DMV just two days earlier.

After the unresponsive driver had been taken to the hospital, the SUV had been left in the parking lot. Now, Anson County deputies returned to the DMV and seized the vehicle. They learned that it was registered to Allisha Dene Watts of Foxfire, North Carolina. The man who had been driving it was her boyfriend, James Dunmore.

Deputies searched the vehicle onsite, then had it towed to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police headquarters for processing. They also searched the area surrounding the DMV for any sign of Allisha Watts. It was a fairly rural location – lots of woods and farmland near the town of Wadesboro, about halfway between Charlotte and Foxfire. The DMV was across the highway from a correctional facility. Unfortunately, deputies couldn’t find anything that connected to Allisha.

By this point, three law enforcement agencies were looking into Allisha’s disappearance, and it was clear that they needed to talk to James Dunmore. He was the last person to see Allisha, and he had been driving her car after she disappeared. Detectives also found something of interest outside of Dunmore’s home – a 9mm shell casing lying in the street. However, James Dunmore had apparently been released from the hospital after his suicide attempt, and now, no one knew where he was.

Allisha’s family was understandably frustrated. If officers had run the SUV’s plates when it was first discovered on July 18th, would they have started looking for Allisha sooner? She had now been missing for four days; it was a race against the clock.

In a letter released to the media, Allisha’s younger sister Tammy wrote, “We have been devastated ever since the horrific news broke about [Allisha’s] disappearance. So many questions that we will never get answered, however, we can’t seem to get past the most prevalent question of them all. What happened to Allisha Watts? Our hearts hurt daily from not knowing the answers our family, friends, and our devoted community deserve to know.”

On July 26th, the family held a press conference in Charlotte, organized by the Racial Justice Network. Allisha had now been missing for ten days, and they still didn’t have answers. Allisha’s friend Brandy told the gathered crowd, “We’re not going to stop until we find her. We need answers from the police department. And if we’re not going to get answers, then we’re going to do it ourselves.”

That same day, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police executed a search warrant on James Dunmore’s home. According to the warrant, they were looking for anything that could be used to commit or cover up a homicide. During the search, they seized cell phones, a laptop, a camera and memory card, photos, and clothing. They also swabbed various surfaces in the home for DNA evidence. But it would be another two weeks before police provided an update to the public.

On August 9th, Charlotte Police Captain Joel McNelly gave an interview to WSOC in which he stated that they didn’t know if Allisha Watts was still alive, but they had reason to believe that she might have left on her own. He was hesitant to name James Dunmore as a person of interest, and said that they still hadn’t been able to make contact with him for questioning. However, Captain McNelly said that Allisha’s case was a top priority for investigators; they were pouring all of their resources into finding her and were regularly communicating with her family.

Allisha’s family disagreed with McNelly’s statements. Allisha would never leave on her own, and investigators had not been in contact nearly enough. Her cousin Gwen told WSOC, “I’m not going to say they haven’t communicated at all, but it hasn’t been on a regular basis – not to me, not enough to keep you from not worrying.” The family also learned that CMPD hadn’t added Allisha to NamUs – the national missing persons database. Instead, a private citizen submitted her case on August 16th, a month after she disappeared.

Although investigators were not as communicative as Allisha’s family would have liked, they were actively working the case. Allisha’s cell phone had been found at James Dunmore’s house, and investigators were digging into the location data to see if it could provide any clues. They were also looking deeply into James Dunmore himself, and what they found was a long history of criminal behavior.

In 1997, James Dunmore was charged with a felony after escaping custody; three years later, he was charged with felony assault and battery, but the case was dismissed. In 2003, a Virginia court convicted him of assault and battery and felony abduction. He was sentenced to five years in prison and was given 15 years of probation. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to stalking charges.

Dunmore also had multiple domestic violence incidents on his record. He had been married since 2021, and his wife had called the police several times over the following two years to report his abuse. In March of 2023, just four months before Allisha disappeared, Dunmore’s wife filed for an order of protection against him, citing instances where Dunmore had punched, kicked, and choked her. He had threatened to kill her on multiple occasions, and she feared for her life.

James Dunmore began dating Allisha Watts sometime in early 2023. It’s unclear if Allisha knew about his criminal past or the fact that he was still legally married. While making her initial missing persons report, Allisha’s cousin Gwen referred to Dunmore’s wife as his ex-girlfriend, which suggests that no one in Allisha’s family knew the truth about him.

Allisha’s friend Learan told WCNC that they saw red flags in Dunmore from the beginning, but Allisha didn’t seem to notice. “There were several things he would say or do, to us, that were controlling. But to her, it was, ‘He loves me.’” Sadly, this is a very common refrain for women who are caught in abusive relationships.

On August 24, 2023, investigators conducted a ground search near the town of Norman, an area they had searched multiple times before based on Allisha’s cell phone data. This time, a trained cadaver dog led them into the woods behind a small cemetery. There, they discovered a set of decomposed human remains. Tattoos visible on the body led to the identification of Allisha Watts.

In a statement to the press, Montgomery County Sheriff Pete Herron expressed his condolences to Allisha’s family. “This is not the outcome that we had been hoping for, but by finding Allisha today we hope we can bring some closure to family and friends moving forward.”

Investigators believed that Allisha had likely been killed at the cemetery on or around July 18th. It was located on a country road that led from Dunmore’s home in Charlotte to Allisha’s home in Foxfire. Dunmore would have been familiar with that area. Investigators theorized that he killed Allisha, dumped her body in the woods, then parked at the Anson County DMV and attempted to take his own life. Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields told reporters, “There will be a day of reckoning for this individual.”

James Dunmore was arrested at his home in Charlotte and held at the Montgomery County jail without bond. A judge found probable cause that Dunmore had murdered Allisha Watts, and his case was scheduled for trial.

On September 3rd, Allisha’s friends and family gathered to celebrate her life and say goodbye. They shared memories of her and spoke of her giving spirit and loving heart. Her parents shared a poem, saying, “She brought the sunshine and brightened up their world.”

In March of 2024, seven months after Allisha’s body was found, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released the results of her autopsy. Because of the advanced state of decomposition, there was little evidence to be found. “Given the scene findings, autopsy findings, and toxicological findings, as well as the impossibility of ruling out other competing causes of death because of skeletonization, the cause and manner of death in this case are best left as undetermined.”

Sadly, just one month later, Allisha’s mother passed away after a long illness. She never saw justice for her daughter. In an interview with WRAL before her passing, she said, “I don’t want the world to forget my baby. She was wonderful.”

Two years later, in February of 2026, James Dunmore entered an Alford plea, asserting his innocence but admitting that there was enough evidence to convict him of Allisha’s murder. He accepted a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and concealing a death and was sentenced to a minimum of 4 years in prison for each charge. He could be released as early as 2033.

Allisha’s family was heartbroken by the sentencing, frustrated that her killer would receive such a small punishment. Her cousin Tawanna told WRAL, “It was wrong, in every sense of the word wrong. It was not long enough… justice was not served in any way, shape, or form.”

Allisha’s loved ones have expressed their hope that her story will change lives. At her funeral, her friend Gloria said, “Allisha is going to lift up domestic violence. People will take it serious now because the whole wide world knew about this… to me she was a sacrificial lamb to save the lives of other young ladies who are going through domestic violence.”

Allisha’s pastor told WCNC, “Justice is keeping Allisha’s memory alive, so that other women who find themselves in relationships like the one that she was in that ultimately cost her her life, don’t cost another life.”

Allisha Dene Watts was a bright, kind woman who touched the lives of so many people. She wanted to make a difference in the world, and her family intends to continue her legacy. A memorial scholarship was awarded to three graduates of Pinecrest High School who will pursue careers in health care much like Allisha did. Her memory will live on.

If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. Help is free and confidential. You don’t have to suffer alone.