Family hoping renewed attention to 2022 murder will help solve case
Published 12:09 am Saturday, July 5, 2025
For nearly three years, Rosa Mitchke and her children and grandchildren have looked over their shoulders, lived with nightmares and fears and questions while the Rowan County Sheriff’s investigators have worked tirelessly to determine who shot and killed Rosa’s husband, Michael.
Rewards of $20,000 have been offered until now for any information leading to an arrest and conviction, but now, Governor Josh Stein’s office has joined forces with the family and investigators, adding a $25,000 reward from the state.
And both Rosa and lead investigator Lieutenant Ryan Barkley are hoping that the addition might be what pulls the linchpin and opens the gates to a solution.
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Rosa and Michael grew up in Colorado, meeting when she was in sixth grade and he was in eighth.
“But we didn’t date until I was a junior in high school and he had already graduated,” she said. For both, it was a one and done, there was never anyone else.
“We started dating in February of 1983 and got married in December of 1984,” said Rosa, “and we were married for 37 years, 8 months and 20 days.” The couple has three grown children and eight grandchildren, and Mitchke’s daughter Drew Milo said her father was “devoted to his family.”
Both Rosa and Drew remember Michael as their best friend, though in different ways. Married with her own children now, Drew said her parents set a perfect example for her of what marriage should be.
“You hear about soul mates,” she said. “My parents were the perfect example of that. They did everything together. They didn’t make any decisions without talking with each other. And my dad truly was my best friend. I called him every day. He was a fountain of wisdom and patience.”
Both women added that Michael was always ready for a laugh, and that he was nearly always smiling. He would goof around, putting clothespins on his face to make exaggerated expressions or putting peanut M&Ms in his nose and then blowing them out.
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“He could be so silly, especially with the children, but he connected with them in an incredible way,” said Rosa. And that connection served him well during his years a the children’s pastor, both at the Harvest Community Church which is her home church now, and at other churches where he served.
Michael worked for American Airlines and the couple had moved to North Carolina once before in 1987 before moving to Virginia and Massachusetts. They moved back to North Carolina in 2004, and in April of 2021, they bought a piece of property on St. Peter’s Church Road in Rowan County with an eye toward building a dream home that would be their base, from which they could travel on missionary trips.
And for a year and four months, the couple lived in a fifth-wheel camper on the property while they worked on that dream home, doing much of the work themselves.
On the night of Aug. 21, 2022, Rosa and Michael went over her work schedule as a night nurse, and then, as was their usual fashion, he carried her backpack to her car to see her off for the night.
“He kissed me goodbye, and for some reason, I called him back,” said Rosa, “give me those lips one more time. And I told him that I loved him, and I left.”
About 9:45 p.m. that same night, a passing motorist saw that the camper was fully engulfed in flames and called 911. Michael’s body was found inside.
Initially, there were no plans to perform an autopsy, since one is not currently required in North Carolina in the case of fire. But that didn’t sit right with Barkley, who went to bat to get one done.
“To start with, I couldn’t identify the body,” said Barkley. There was too much damage. And second, for some reason, bits of evidence from the body left him feeling unsettled, and he wanted to know if Michael was still alive at the time the fire broke out.
Because he pushed the county medical examiner to in turn push the state medical examiner in Raleigh for an autopsy, one was performed, and days later, Barkley’s intuition was proved right — Michael had been shot four times, and the fire was likely set to cover up the cause of his death.
The fact that an autopsy was almost not done on her husband has driven Rosa to fight for a bill that has passed the house, House Bill 614, that would require an autopsy for anyone found in a fire, no matter what. They are waiting for it to come before the Senate, and have high hopes it will pass there as well.
“If they hadn’t done an autopsy, the person that did this would have gotten away with this completely,” she said. “No one would have known that he was murdered. I don’t want that to happen to any other family.”
That has given her some focus, but it doesn’t help with the underlying, unsolved case, and in the ensuing years since Michael was shot, no one, not family, not investigators, has been able to figure out the why of Michael’s death. No motive has surfaced. What has been determined is physical evidence has connected Michael’s murder to the murder one month earlier of David Land, who was found shot at his home on Poole Road on July 20, 2022.
Many in Rowan County thought these cases had been solved. The media stopped covering both because updates were sparse, despite the fact that there was a $20,000 reward offered in Michael’s case and a $10,000 reward offered in Land’s case.
Now, Rosa, her family and Barkley are hoping that the new reward, which brings the total amount to $45,000 for Michael’s case, may be enough to renew awareness and to encourage someone to talk.
“Someone needs to be strong enough to come forward,” said Rosa. After Michael’s death, she said she lived with her daughter for more than a year while they finished the house — the dream house that Michael never got to live in, but in which the kitchen of his dreams came to fruition.
“The cabinets, the colors, it’s all what Dad wanted,” said Milo. “He loved to cook, and he wanted as many kitchen cabinets as possible for as many kitchen gadgets as possible.”
For the Mitchke family, Michael is still very present, in photos, in stories they tell, in the effort they make to keep him with them.
“My youngest child will not remember him,” said Milo, “except in photos and stories. But we didn’t stop talking about him and we never will. We won’t let him fade into silence.”
Rosa and Milo said over time they have pieced together what they believe were Michael’s last hours, and say they have narrowed the time of his death down to sometime between 8:30 and 9:45 p.m.
“I am hoping that someone will have just one bit of information that opens this all up,” said Rosa, who said that she and her family still live with the fear that they may be targets. Rosa said she got to get away from the house after it happened, but her neighbors, who were also worried, didn’t get to leave. They had to stay right there, and live with the fear. And it was made worse by the fact that Land’s murder happened just four miles away, so it set the whole neighborhood on edge.
Barkley is also hoping a renewed focus on the story will bring information to the forefront.
“If everyone waited for a detective to knock on their door and ask them what they know, some crimes would never be solved,” he said. “We’re asking anyone we may have missed during our canvassing of the area to come forward with anything, big or small, that they know about either or both of these murders. It doesn’t have to be a significant event. It could be as simple as seeing a vehicle in the area, a comment overheard in a restaurant, or even just a gut feeling about someone they know. These are the details that could be the key to helping put these cases to rest and holding the right person accountable.
“We’ve spoken to some people who had information but said they were waiting for us to find them,” he added. “As a community, we have to do better at taking care of our neighbors and understand that there are more citizens than there are investigators. No homicide in this county is ignored or forgotten. We are constantly working on these two cases every week, and we are looking for that person or people that can help us push both Michael’s case and David Land’s case to closure.”
Meanwhile, Rosa says that she cannot help but look at everyone she meets and think, “are you the person that killed my husband?”
Still, through it all, though “yes, I am angry that someone took my best friend, and yes, it hurts, but I still hope that people come to God, find their hope, through Michael’s story. Life on earth is short, but the eternal is forever. I know that is where Michael is, with Jesus, and I do not believe you can be sad in heaven. And one day, I will be there, to meet Jesus and to be with Michael.”
As for the person who shot and killed Michael, she has already found forgiveness, and wants them to know that she hopes they can find their own path to God.
“Sin is sin,” she said. “How can I ask God to forgive me, if I can’t forgive someone else?”
Anyone who has any information to offer, no matter how small, can contact either Barkley at 704- 216-8711 or by calling Crime Stoppers at 866-639-5245.
