CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The decomposed bodies of a Chapel Hill couple might have been in their home as long as two weeks after they were shot in the head, a medical examiner said Sunday.
Their 16-year-old son, Adam James Spence Sapikowski (search), charged with killing the couple, spent the weekend under close watch in a Morganton youth correctional facility.
Dr. Thomas Clark, associate chief state medical examiner, performed autopsies Sunday on James and Alison Powell Sapikowski.
After examining each body for two hours, Clark concluded that James Sapikowski, 52, was shot three times in the head. Alison Sapikowski, 49, was shot once in the head and once in the shoulder. The couple had no other injuries and were shot by a .410-gauge shotgun at a range of 2 to 5 feet.
James Sapikowski, head coach of a club hockey team at UNC-Chapel Hill (search), was wearing athletic clothing, and Alison Sapikowski was wearing a nightgown when the bodies were found early Saturday morning in a ground-floor bedroom in the couple's home, Clark said.
Adam Sapikowski, a junior at Durham Academy (search), was charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree murder. He confessed to the killings, said Gregg Jarvies, Chapel Hill police chief.
A first appearance hearing was scheduled Monday in Orange County District Court in Hillsborough today.
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