'He just liked to work': 4 men charged with cold case murder of beloved masonry business owner killed during robbery in his van after paying his employees

Jeter Edward "Eddie" Greene was only 26 when he was found dead inside his work van in Long View, North Carolina, in 2008. Nearly 15 years later, police say they've arrested his killers.

"Eddie was a hard worker," his mother, Wilma Yount, said through tears at a press conference earlier this week. "He worked for everything that he had. Himself. He paid for. We didn't give it to him. He worked from daylight to dark every day. Seven days a week most of the time. And when work got slow, he would get out and find himself a new one. He wouldn't sit around and not do anything."

"These people don't know what they've done to us," the grieving mother continued, still crying, with her daughter at her side.

On Sept. 18, a Catawba County grand jury indicted Emandalae Diontae Tolbert, 31, Anthony Maurice Tucker, 37, Jamar Quarmaine Propst, 33, and Pierre Demond Ramseur, 33, for Greene's murder, according to a Friday press release issued by the Long View Police Department.

All four have been charged with one count each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, the LVPD said.

"Criminal charges in this investigation demonstrate that justice has no time limit, and today we are one step closer for justice for Eddie," Long View Police Chief T.J. Bates said at the press conference in comments reported by the Hickory Daily Record.

On Oct. 3, 2008, Greene's body was found inside the van he used for his successful masonry business, Eddie's Masonry, which he had run for nine years before his death – employing several others in Long View, a small town that spreads across both Catawba and Burke counties of the Tarheel State, roughly an hour northwest of Charlotte.

His family believes he had just paid his employees and likely had some extra cash on him at the time of the slaying.

"Me and Eddie were really close," Yount said on Friday. "He was my baby, and he didn't mind telling anyone he was my baby. Our life's torn terribly. It's not been the same since we lost him."

Since the awful discovery late that night, police immediately suspected foul play and the crime scene was processed by homicide investigators, the LVPD said. Local law enforcement even called in the State Bureau of Investigation to assist with the investigation and jointly pursued several leads, but eventually, the case went cold.

In April 2020, LVPD investigators reopened Greene's case, again with assistance from state law enforcement. Police did not elaborate on the contours of the reignited investigation except to say that information and evidence led them to believe that Tolbert, Tucker, Propst, and Ramseur shot and killed Greene amid a robbery.

Police say that at least one of the alleged killers knew the beloved mason.

"Eddie was a fun-loving person," Yount said. "He loved everyone. It didn't matter what color you was. And he would give the shirt off his back to anyone. I don't understand how this could have happened to him."

The loss was particularly hard for Eddie Greene's younger brother, who was 15 then.

"He needed Eddie," Yount said.

During the press conference, the victim's mother relayed just one story of heroism as practiced by her dead son.

A neighbor's son was battling brain cancer, and they couldn't afford the necessary transition from well water to the county utility connection. Undeterred by the lack of funds, Greene went and dug the lines himself and outfitted the pipes as well, his mother said.

"That's the kind of guy he was," Yount said. "He wasn't all about money. He didn't care about money. He just liked to work."

Propst and Ramseur are detained in the Catawba County Detention Facility without bond, records show. Tolbert was arrested in Michigan and is awaiting extradition to North Carolina, police say. Tucker is incarcerated in Virginia on unrelated charges, and police are working with federal authorities to secure his formal arrest.

Propst, who was 18 in 2008, mouthed "I love you" to his wife and three children in a Friday court appearance, according to Charlotte-based ABC and Telemundo affiliate WSOC.

"He's a great man, a hardworking father," his wife, Lynn Propst, told the TV station. "This must have all been a misunderstanding. He's innocent."

During the press conference, Greene's sister, Stacy Igo, mused on the limits of justice in comments reported by Charlotte-based CBS affiliate WBTV.

"Now that we've got the arrest, we're one step closer to getting that justice for Eddie is not going to bring him back," she said. "We're always gonna have that hole in our hearts, but at least now we can finally get some answers. It's just hard to believe these – these boys that took his life [were] 18 years old, some of them. How do you do that?"