Family members of a North Carolina household are demanding answers after a couple and their adopted daughter were found dead during a reported power outage.
Tracey and Kenneth Swann, along with their adopted niece, Mahala Scurlock, were discovered dead Monday inside their Rocky Mount home. Their three dogs were also found dead at the scene.
According to the Rocky Mount Police Department, officers made the grim discovery around 10:45 a.m. after being called to the residence for a welfare check.
Authorities have not yet confirmed an official cause of death, but devastated relatives suspect the tragedy may be linked to the unsafe use of a generator after the home’s electricity was disconnected.
Hannah Scurlock, Mahala’s older sister, told Our News Outlet that Tracey, who was both her aunt and Mahala’s adoptive mother, had gone to the city in an effort to pay part of the family’s electric bill.
“They took whatever she had paid and then they never put a light on. After she paid it, they said it wasn’t enough money,” Scurlock said.
“When the lights got cut off, my uncle went to go get a generator to keep them with power,” she added.
Investigators are now examining whether the generator may have been used inside the house rather than outdoors, a potentially fatal mistake that can allow carbon monoxide fumes to build up indoors.
Hannah Scurlock, seen left, discovered her sister Mahala, seen right, and her aunt and uncle after they died alongside their three dogs inside their Rocky Mount home on Monday
Scurlock said that the family’s power had been shut off by the city before they had passed, and that her uncle had got a generator to keep them with electricity after mounting bills
Tracey, 63, and Kenneth Swann, 56, adopted Hannah and Mahala Scurlock after their parents had died
The heartbroken sister and niece of Tracey, 63, and Kenneth, 56, said that they had adopted both Mahala and herself after they lost both of their parents.
‘I’m the one that found them that Monday morning,’ Scurlock recalled. ‘I came by the house, knocked on the door and nobody answered. I screamed and hollered their names.’
Scurlock said she kept yelling for her family, and knew something awful had happened after no one had heard from them over that weekend.
‘My auntie didn’t go to work. I’m getting calls from her job. I’m getting calls from the church,’ she said.
‘I’m getting calls everywhere asking, “Have you seen them?” Her daughter started calling me: “Hey, have you heard from mama?”‘
Tracey’s daughter, Krista Crisp, 41, also told WRAL News that she believes their power being shut off may have played a role in her mother’s death.
According to Crisp, power to the family’s mobile home in Kingsway Mobile Home Park was turned off just days before they were found dead.
Crisp said that Tracey, the only working member of the household, attempted to pay the total in installments, but the city would only accept the full amount owed.
She also suspected that something was wrong after her mother didn’t show up to a planned family shopping trip on Saturday, the outlet reported.
Scurlock described her sister as her ‘baby’ and ‘a loving and sweet girl’ with a ‘pure heart’ who had just passed her course at community college to become a veterinarian
Scurlock recalled that she had called Tracey ‘mom’ before she had even adopted the pair, and the family ‘always laughed and played and joked around’
According to the outlet, a relative went to their home on the Monday they were discovered and told Crisp: ‘I smell death.’
Scurlock told Our News Outlet that her sister was her ‘baby.’
‘Me and my sister were the only two,’ she said, explaining that they had lost a parent when Mahala was four years old and then again when she was 14 years old.
‘When it came to my sister, I don’t play. I never played about it. I never have not. One time, I promised my dad when he died that I would never, ever leave her or let anybody hurt her. The fact that this happened, I’m furious,’ Scurlock continued.
‘My sister was a loving and sweet girl. She really, really loved everybody. She had a pure heart. Even though she was autistic, she graduated high school and ended up attending Alamance Community College.’
Mahala had passed her course to become a veterinarian, her sister said.
‘She was just one of the best siblings to ask for in my eyes,’ she added.
Scurlock recalled that she had called Tracey ‘mom’ before she had even adopted the pair.
Rocky Mount Police Chief Martin McCoy Sr told the outlet that the department would be ‘looking at every angle,’ but that the family’s utility bills would not be included in their investigation
‘We always laughed and played and joked around. We would go fishing, we go on family trips. We always just was happy, like, not too many arguments other than being a kid,’ she recalled.
‘[It] really hurts me. I lost a mom. I lost a sister – I lost my baby. I lost my uncle.’
Rocky Mount Police Chief Martin McCoy Sr told the outlet that the department would be ‘looking at every angle,’ but that the family’s utility bills would not be included in their investigation.
‘That would be an issue that the family would have to take up with the utilities department,’ he said.
Demetrius Wright, a neighbor, also told Fox 8 that the family had faced more than $2,000 in electricity bills.
‘[Kenneth Swann] went down there, and they had him pay $1,000, so he paid it. I thought that they would turn the lights back on for consideration, but they didn’t do it. It forced him to go to his mom’s house and grab a generator to keep the house cool,’ Wright said.
The neighbor said he believes the generator played a role in the family’s death.
Mary Thompson, another neighbor of the family’s, told the outlet: ‘They were really nice people. They bought be vegetables, and they helped me move in and move furniture around. They were just really great people.’
Elizabeth Scurlock, the niece of Tracey and Kenneth, told the WRAL that the Swann’s would ‘give you the clothes off their back if they could’
Kenyan Patterson, the 24-year-old son of the Swann’s, added: ‘Tracey was a go-getter. She cared for her kids, and she always made sure there was food in her house. She would give you anything you wanted. That was the kind of people they were.’
Patterson described Mahala as a ‘sweetheart’ who would ‘never hurt a soul.’
Elizabeth Scurlock, the niece of Tracey and Kenneth, told the WRAL: ‘They would give you the clothes off their back if they could. They meant – they mean the world to us.
‘This is still very hard for us, and we’re just trying to process this.’
Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson told ABC 11 in a statement: ‘I have asked the City Manager to explore whether there are opportunities to provide greater flexibility in our utility payment policies for residents who are making a good-faith effort to pay their bills, while also ensuring that any changes protect the integrity of the system and prevent abuse.’
The family’s deaths come after the area has been facing increasing issues with billing and charging customers late fees, as well as shutting off power to those with unpaid bills.
The State Auditor’s Office also launched an investigation weeks ago over claims that the city had been over-charging for electric service last year, the outlet reported.
By the end of 2025, thousands of customers had claimed to have received two electric bills during the same month. The auditor’s report discovered that customers had not been double billed.
Meanwhile, a prior audit discovered that ‘significant overspending has led the City to the brink of financial collapse.’
The Daily Mail reached out to the Rocky Mount Police Department, the City of Rocky Mount, the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and attempted to reach relatives of the family for comment.
