PINEVILLE, N.C. -- Police believe they’ve uncovered the secrets of a slaying in a small house on a quiet Pineville street.

When 43-year-old Richard Drost was shot and killed last month, no one knew why. But investigators say phone records later connected Drost to a Charlotte-based dating service.

Detectives say what they found at the scene told them something else too.

“We do have evidence that there was some drug usage,” said Det. Bill Connell of the Pineville Police Department.

Police now believe that an altercation developed inside the home on Olive Street between Drost and a woman he’d arranged to meet from the dating service. The woman told police she was attacked by Drost, who wanted to have sex, and during the struggle she pulled a gun.

Drost was found by a friend the next day. He was dead of a gunshot wound through his back.

After nearly two weeks, police were closing in on the woman they believed pulled the trigger. They were tracking down her family, when they got a major break.

“The person that was actually there that evening called us on the phone and said, ‘I want to come in and talk to you about this.’ So they did,” Connell said.

Even more details of what happened inside the home have been sent to the district attorney, who will decide what, if any, charges will be filed.

Drost’s neighbor Bobbie Heefner is relieved to know that police have unraveled the mystery just two doors away.

“It’s just too close to my house not to wonder. I’m very happy that they have a suspect. I really am,” he said.

Drost’s death marks the only slaying in Pineville so far this year.

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