Zoe Welsh was on the phone with dispatchers when police say the intruder inside her Clay Street home attacked her.
RALEIGH, N.C. — The murder case against Ryan Vincent Camacho begins with a 911 call from a teacher who told dispatchers a man was inside her home and ended with police finding her fatally injured on Clay Street.
Newly released warrants now place that emergency call alongside statements police say Camacho made after his arrest. Investigators say the 36-year-old suspect knew how Zoe Welsh, 57, had been killed and spoke about striking her with a rock. Camacho is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree burglary in a case that links a home break-in, a neighborhood search and a long record of prior court involvement.
Welsh called 911 at 6:33 a.m. Jan. 3 from her home at 819 Clay Street, according to Raleigh police. She reported hearing glass break and said a man was inside her residence. During the call, police say, she found him in the kitchen and described him to dispatchers. Investigators later wrote that she recognized the man from Fred Fletcher Park, which sits across the street from her home. The call then captured the sound of the attack. Officers arrived to find Welsh with life-threatening injuries. They provided medical aid until emergency crews transported her to a hospital, where she died a short time later.
For detectives, the 911 call offered more than a report of a burglary. It gave them a location, a description and a possible link to a nearby public space before police arrived. The newly released warrant says Welsh described the suspect as a white man wearing grayish tan pants and a similar colored sweatshirt. The document also says she had seen him at the park before the attack. Police have not said that Welsh and Camacho had any personal relationship. Authorities have not detailed a motive, and the warrant does not explain why the intruder entered Welsh’s house or why the assault began.
The search after the call stretched through the neighborhood. Additional officers were sent to the area, and a police dog tracked the suspect toward an apartment about half a mile away. Investigators said officers found evidence of another break-in there, including a broken window. Camacho was found inside with blood on his hands, the warrant says. Police later learned he had once lived at that apartment before being evicted. Another report said Camacho was found on Whitaker Mill Road, within walking distance of Welsh’s home. Officers took him into custody, and Raleigh police later announced that detectives had charged him with murder and felony burglary.
The statements attributed to Camacho came after he was in police custody. According to the warrant, Camacho asked detectives whether the interview concerned “the lady’s head I bashed in with a rock” and called Welsh “the lady I killed.” Investigators wrote that the remarks showed he had details about the death. Separate reporting on the warrant said police seized clothing, some of it believed to be covered in blood, and recovered a rock they say was used in the killing. Those pieces of evidence are likely to be central as prosecutors build the case. The defense has not publicly laid out its response to the statements or the physical evidence.
Welsh’s death reached beyond the block where police found her. She was a longtime science teacher at Ravenscroft School, a private K-12 school in Raleigh, and had worked there since the mid-2000s. A school spokesperson said the community was devastated and described Welsh as a cornerstone of the Upper School Science Department. The school said it was offering grief counseling and support for students, faculty and staff. Welsh taught biology and was known to generations of students who passed through her classroom. Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce called her a mother, friend and mentor and said the department shared in the sadness caused by her death.
Camacho’s past became part of the story almost immediately after his arrest. Court and correction records show he had a 20-year criminal history in Wake and Durham counties. He had faced charges involving breaking and entering, larceny, property damage, malicious conduct by a prisoner and shooting into an occupied property. In 2021, state records show he tried to escape from a prison in Salisbury. In 2025, four felony charges from Durham County were reduced through a plea agreement to one misdemeanor breaking and entering charge. He served time in the Durham County jail that summer and was released in August. Records also show another Raleigh arrest later in 2025.
The case also revived questions about mental health and criminal court standards. Court records from 2019 described Camacho as previously diagnosed with schizophrenia and said he had experienced auditory hallucinations and paranoia. His mother had previously sought guardianship, telling the court he needed help and a structured living environment. In December 2025, breaking and entering charges against him in Wake County were dismissed after a competency evaluation. Prosecutors asked that he be involuntarily committed, but a judge denied the request. District Attorney Lorrin Freeman later said the legal test required a finding of imminent danger to himself or others, and the judge did not find that threshold had been met.
The legal case is now in Superior Court after a Wake County grand jury formally indicted Camacho in February. The indictment moved the prosecution beyond the initial arrest phase, but several issues remain open. Prosecutors must present evidence from the emergency call, the search, the seizure of clothing and the rock, and the statements attributed to Camacho. The court also must address whether Camacho is competent to stand trial. A forensic evaluator wrote in March that she could not determine his capacity to proceed in other cases. That finding does not end the murder case, but it signals that mental capacity may shape future hearings.
At Clay Street, the first facts of the case were gathered in real time through Welsh’s call for help. At Ravenscroft, the impact was measured through grief from students and colleagues. In court, the focus is narrower: whether the state can prove that Camacho broke into Welsh’s home and killed her. He remains held without bond at the Wake County Detention Center. His next listed court date was April 30.
Author note: Last updated May 6, 2026.