Search warrant says Raleigh murder suspect admitted killing teacher

A newly released search warrant says Ryan Vincent Camacho admitted killing Raleigh teacher Zoe Mullin Welsh, a statement that sharpens the case against him and gives investigators a direct acknowledgment to pair with the physical evidence in the home-invasion death.

Welsh, 57, called 911 at about 6:33 a.m. on Jan. 3 from 819 Clay Street, reporting that a man was inside her home. While she was still on the phone, the intruder began assaulting her, Raleigh police said. Officers arrived to find Welsh suffering from life-threatening injuries; they gave aid at the scene and she later died at WakeMed Hospital. Police identified Camacho as the suspect and later found him in the surrounding area.

The new warrant adds the most damaging detail yet. It says Camacho told detectives he bludgeoned Welsh with a rock and referred to her as “the lady I killed.” That admission matters because it moves the case beyond an arrest based on location, injuries and witness accounts and toward a prosecution built around a direct statement from the accused.

The attack resonated across Raleigh in part because Welsh was not caught in a random street crime. She was in her own home, in a neighborhood near Fred Fletcher Park, and she was a teacher at Ravenscroft School. Welsh told 911 dispatchers that the intruder was a man she recognized from the park. WRAL reported that Camacho was later found about two miles from her home with what appeared to be blood on his clothes.

The case has also drawn attention because of what prosecutors and police have said about Camacho’s background and movements before the killing. WRAL reported that he had a criminal history spanning more than 20 years and more than 20 arrests, and that police believed he may have been sleeping in Fred Fletcher Park before Welsh was killed. In the six months before the homicide, Raleigh police had responded to eight 911 calls at the park and made 44 calls for service there, 37 of them security checks.

Camacho was formally indicted by a Wake County grand jury on Feb. 10, and he remains held without bond. He is scheduled to appear in Wake County court on April 30. For Ravenscroft, the loss hit a school community that said Welsh was a cornerstone of its science department and offered grief counseling to students, faculty and staff. Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce said he was “deeply heartbroken” for Welsh and her family, a sentiment that has echoed through a case now entering a more evidentiary stage.