Missing Wayne County man found dead in Goldsboro neighborhood

Detectives with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office identified a body found in the Shadywood Drive neighborhood of Goldsboro as Robert William Shook, then sent the remains to the North Carolina medical examiner’s office for a formal ruling on the cause of death. At this stage, investigators can say the missing-person case has become a death investigation, but they cannot yet say whether Shook died in an accident, from natural causes or in a homicide.

The timeline now in the record begins with family members saying Shook was last seen on June 16, 2026. Deputies received a missing-person report on June 19, and the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit took over the disappearance investigation. Three days later, on June 23, a resident in the Shadywood Drive neighborhood discovered a deceased male at the edge of the woods on private property, turning a search for a missing man into a crime-scene response in a residential area.

What investigators have not said is just as important. No suspect has been named, and the sheriff’s office has not publicly released a cause or manner of death. That leaves the medical examiner’s ruling as the pivotal next step, because without it, authorities cannot determine whether the case belongs in the category of accidental death, natural death or a criminal killing. The body’s discovery near a wooded property line also leaves open basic questions about how Shook got there and what happened in the three days between the last sighting and the recovery.

Shook was 44 years old and was born June 3, 1982, in Iredell County, North Carolina, according to obituary information. An obituary identified him as Robert “Robbie” William Shook of Goldsboro, and another death notice said he died on June 23, 2026. The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, which has operated since 1985 as the state clearinghouse for missing children and adults, remains part of the broader system that tracks cases like this as law enforcement works to close the gap between disappearance and explanation.

For now, the case stands where many missing-person investigations eventually do: a body has been found, a name has been confirmed, and the hardest question is still unanswered. Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact Goldsboro/Wayne Crimestoppers or the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.