Did Vick or Bad News Kennels Murder Informant?

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A dog fighter in North Carolina was found murdered in his home in April, right about the times that all of the allegations began to fly that Michael Vick was involved in dog fighting, and at the same time that Vick began to destroy his dogs to bury evidence of his involvement in the crimes.  But the murder has baffled investigators.  The victim, Roy Melton, likely knew his murderer, and his large sums of money and cocaine he had in his house was undisturbed.  Did someone kill him to shut him up?

 
Now linked to a murder?

From the Daily Press here:

Federal investigators are looking into connections between trained fighting dogs bred by a man found shot to death in rural North Carolina and the dogfighting operation headed by suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick.

The sheriff investigating the North Carolina killing said he plans to pursue links between the dogfighting groups to see if they can answer any questions in the unsolved homicide.

Roy Thomas Melton, a 38-year-old resident of Catawba County, north of Charlotte, was found in his home on April 17, dead from multiple gunshot wounds.

In the many boxes of dogfighting records Melton kept, the sheriff said, investigators found listings of the winning and losing dogs, with vicious-sounding names like Nitro. Some of the names overlapped with those listed in the July indictment against Vick and three other men, he said.

The July indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, mentions at least two North Carolina dogs — Maniac and Trouble — that fought pit bulls owned or sponsored by Bad News Kennels.

Vick, Purnell Peace, Quanis Phillips and Tony Taylor pleaded guilty to running the dogfighting ring out of Vick’s Surry County home.

The indictment also mentions confidential “cooperating witnesses” from North Carolina who tipped off federal investigators.

Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman said federal investigators haven’t told him yet whether Melton was one of their informants.

The killing, discovered April 17 by a friend of Melton’s, has puzzled sheriff’s detectives.

There was no sign of forced entry into Melton’s home, and the pit-bull breeder was known for his strict security measures.

In addition to more than 30 pit bulls found at his home, deputies found large amounts of cocaine and large sums of money, the sheriff said.

“That’s unusual, to have a homicide like that with no robbery,” he said. “What’s the motive?”

In April, Vick and his cohorts viciously murdered at least 8 dogs in their Surry compound, using bizarre methods such as drowning and electrocution.  Was this destruction of their dogs done to destroy evidence because they knew law enforcement was coming?  And more importantly, who murdered Roy Melton to keep him quiet?