Four indicted with McCrae Dowless still not arrested

BLADENBORO, NC (WBTV) - Four people who were indicted for charges of illegally collecting absentee ballots still have not been arrested according to the State Bureau of Investigation.

WBTV Investigates tried tracking down the four people now facing felony charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and possession of an absentee ballot.

At the apartment of Rebecca Thompson, one of the defendants, we learned more about why she’s facing those charges.

“The police need to go get her though. Because she got a lot of people f***** up around here,” Robert Montgomery said.

Robert Montgomery lives in the Village Oaks apartments, which had some of the highest rates of requests for absentee ballots in the 2018 primary. It’s also where Rebecca Thompson lives.

Montgomery says she had him fill out a form she said was for supporting beer and wine sales in Bladenboro. A few days later he says he got a letter in the mail from the Bladen County board of elections. He never opened it.

“The letter came and I gave it to her and I ain’t hear no more about the letter,” Montgomery said.

He says when he tried voting at the Elizabethtown Library Later that year he was told he couldn’t.

“They say I can’t vote because someone signed me up for a Republican and no I’m not a Republican I’m a Democrat,” Montgomery said.

State Board of Elections records show Montgomery has historically voted early, in person and in primaries as a democrat. But during the 2018 primary he voted absentee mail and a republican ballot.

His ballot envelope was signed and witnessed by Rebecca Thompson.

We didn’t find Rebecca Thompson or any of the other defendants. A woman who lives in a nearby apartment says she saw three plain clothes officers knock on her door Wednesday but they didn’t leave with anyone.

At the address for Caitlyn Croom, Croom’s mother said that her daughter is currently in rehab. She said she wasn’t even aware her daughter was charged with a crime.

She said McCrae Dowless told Croom she would get paid for however many ballots she delivered. Regarding her daughter being indicted she said “I don’t think that’s fair because they didn’t know (it was illegal).”

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