Expat extradited to face attempted murder charges in North Carolina

A 62-year-old man who fled to Ecuador after being charged with attempted first-degree murder has been extradited back to Burke County, North Carolina after at least two years on the lam.

Dean Yancey went by other names in Ecuador.

Dean Allen Yancey of Connelly Springs vanished before his October 2015 trial on charges related to shots fired into his brother and sister-in-law’s home in 2013. Two rounds just missed the couple as they sat in their living room, the Burke County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.

A Burke County grand jury indicted Yancey at the time on two counts each of attempted first-degree murder, discharging a weapon into an occupied dwelling and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, all felonies.

With help from the U.S. Marshal’s Service, sheriff’s investigators eventually learned Yancey was living 2,600 miles away in Cuenca, Ecuador. Yancey, who went by several aliases, was well-known in the U.S. expats communities in Cuenca and on the Pacific coast in Ecuador.

A Cuenca acquaintance who knew him as Chucky, said Yancey volunteered for a local animal rescue service and was an excellent poker player. “He was very friendly and mild-mannered,” the acquaintance said.

Investigators have not disclosed how they learned Yancey was in Ecuador.

Yancey was in the Burke County Jail without bail on Thursday. He was on Burke County’s Most Wanted list for over a year.