CONCORD, N.C. — The Concord Police Department says they have identified a suspect in a nearly two-decade-old cold case known as the ‘Sun Drop Murders.’
Police arrested 43-year-old Johnny Talbert in Washington state on Thursday.
He’s charged in connection to the 2008 double homicide and robbery that happened at the Sun Drop Bottling Company in Concord.
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Police said they responded to the shooting at the Sun Drop Bottling Company on Old-Salisbury Concord Road near Branchview Drive on June 13, 2008. That’s when they found the two victims who had been shot: 59-year-old Donna Barnhardt and 44-year-old Darrell Noles.
Investigators said Barnhardt was an office manager for the company and had been there for 18 years. Noles was at the bottling company to apply for a job when he was shot and killed.
Detectives said after the shooting that they believed the suspect stole money from the front office after killing the victims.
It’s not clear what led to a break in the case. The Concord Police Department said they followed up on “previously undeveloped leads” and re-examined evidence in the case, and they said detectives “uncovered critical information that ultimately led to Talbert’s arrest” in late 2025.
Detectives went to Port Angeles, Washington, to investigate Talbert on May 18, and he was arrested three days later.
‘Disappeared’
Scott Padgett, who was the Concord mayor in 2008, says he’s thrilled that there’s a break in the case.
“It’s going to take a few days to let this sink in that this is really solved,” Padgett told Channel 9’s Gina Esposito on Tuesday.
The double homicide shocked the community.
“Whoever it was just disappeared,” Padgett said. “I never heard anything. For years. People would just ride by and think of, ‘How did that happen?’”
Padgett says that he remembers going to Noles’ funeral.
“I went as an elected official, but one of my city council members knew him real well, and everybody was so sad, because he was in the wrong place, wrong time,” the former mayor said.
Chris Lee, who works at Branchview Quality Cleaners, says customers have been asking how Concord Police finally cracked the case after all these years.
“Everybody was like, ‘I can’t believe that happened in Concord,’” Lee said.
Talbert is currently being held without bail in the Clallam County Jail and is awaiting extradition to Concord.
He will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm.
This is a developing story. Check back with wsoctv.com for updates.
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