‘So strong’: Family pleads for updates after 4-year-old finds his mom dead

STATESVILLE, N.C. — The mother of a Statesville woman who was killed in her own home is talking for the first time.

Cassie Smith shared photos of Shelbie Smith, along with her four-year-old son. Channel 9′s Dave Faherty spoke with her about their incredible loss as police search for the killer.

Smith fought back tears as she spoke about her daughter and her grandson, who was in the home when his mother was killed. The 4-year-old woke up, found his mom’s body, and ventured out in the middle of the night to find help along Hickory Avenue.

That little boy left home to find help because he knew something was wrong.

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“It’s my understanding that he knew something was wrong or he was scared, and he went to go and try to get help at four o’clock in the morning. He was so smart and so strong that he went to try and get help for mommy,” Smith said.

A neighbor who spotted Shelbie’s son made the gruesome discovery inside her home earlier this month.

Since then, police have worked to identify the person responsible, telling Faherty they don’t believe there is a threat to the community and that Shelbie may have known her attacker.

At this point, police aren’t releasing how she died, but her mother says it was violent. She wants to know why, and she’s asking for help from the community.

“Every little thing that you might not think matters, it might,” Smith said. “Let the detectives decide if it does or not, because none of it makes sense.”

The Statesville police chief tells Faherty they’ve canvassed the neighborhood several times and they’re getting help from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

Shelbie’s son is now living with her twin sister in South Carolina.

(VIDEO: ‘Very violated’: Business owners express concerns after string of break-ins in Statesville)