Man applying for job at bottling company shot dead along with office manager bound for vacation: Police

Sun Drop Bottling Company in Concord, North Carolina (WBTV).

Cops in North Carolina say they solved a double murder at a bottling company nearly two decades after it occurred in a case known as the "Sun Drop Murders."

Johnny Steven Talbert, now 43, is facing two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery in the deaths of 59-year-old Donna Barnhardt and 44-year-old Darrell Noles, the Concord Police Department said in a Facebook post.

It was around 10 a.m. on June 13, 2008, when a man burst into the Sun Drop Bottling Company, located at 360 Old-Salisbury Concord Road in Concord, which is some 25 miles northwest of Charlotte, and opened fire.

Officers rushed to the scene, where they found Barnhardt and Noles suffering from gunshot wounds. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. Barnhardt was a longtime office manager while Noles just happened to be there applying for a job.

Detectives believed the suspect shot and killed the victims before stealing money from the front office and running away. Despite receiving hundreds of tips over the years, cops were unable to solve the case. Investigators continued to submit evidence to the lab as technology advanced.

"A break came in late 2025," cops wrote. "Through a meticulous reexamination of evidence and the pursuit of previously undeveloped leads, detectives uncovered critical information that ultimately led to Talbert's arrest."

Cops learned that Talbert had since moved across the country to Port Angeles, Washington, roughly 80 miles northwest of Seattle. Detectives traveled to Port Angeles and arrested Talbert on Thursday. He's in jail awaiting extradition back to the Tar Heel State.

The Charlotte Observer reports that Barnhardt was the office manager at the family-owned company for nearly two decades. On the day of her murder, the grandmother was set to leave work early to begin a family vacation.

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Matt Huneycutt, Noles' former neighbor who went to school with the victim's kids, posted on the Concord Police Facebook post announcing the arrest. He described Noles as a "mountain of a man."

"Hell of a softball player, man of God, honest and tough," Huneycutt wrote. "Physically and metaphorically he was a giant to us boys. You couldn't find a less deserving man to kill in cold blood. If this man would've asked, Darrell would have given him the shirt off his back, the money in his wallet and a ride across town."