A McDowell County pastor was charged with embezzlement and larceny in November after money and supplies donated for Hurricane Helene relief was reported stolen.
Jeffrey Merrow
Jeffrey Brian Merrow, 60, of Marion, was charged with felony larceny and felony embezzlement, according to information from the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputy Alicia Lund was called to a church, which was not named by the sheriff’s office, on Oct. 28 for a report of embezzlement, fraud and theft. Merrow, who was the pastor of the church at the time, was named as the suspect, the sheriff’s office said.
There are videos online of Merrow preaching at Garden Creek Baptist Church in 2024.
Church members showed Lund receipts for goods and services that were never purchased but were paid for with church funds, the sheriff’s office said. One of the receipts was a claim to a local insurance company for items that were never stolen.
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Large amounts of cash donations from church attendees and the public for hurricane relief were handed over to Merrow, church members told Lund, but were never turned in for hurricane relief. Other hurricane relief items such as generators, chainsaws, heaters and more, were reported stolen.
Merrow has multiple previous convictions, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. He was convicted in Camden County in 2021 of misdemeanor larceny. In 2007, he was convicted in Iredell County of five counts of cheat – money and four counts of failure to furnish buyer, according to state records.
The McDowell County Sheriff’s Office said Merrow currently is on supervised probation for obtaining property by false pretenses greater than $100,000 from an unrelated incident.
Merrow was booked into jail under a $5,000 secured bond, the sheriff’s office said.
