Concord police make arrest in Sun Drop Bottling double murder cold case from 2008
The high-profile double murder at the old Sun Drop Bottling Company that has haunted Concord for nearly two decades finally has yielded a suspect, an arrest across the country and potentially the start of some closure for the victims’ families.
Late Monday, Concord police announced they had obtained an arrest warrant last Thursday, May 21, for 43-year-old Johnny Steven Talbert of Port Angeles, Washington. He was arrested that day by local police and taken into custody without incident.
Talbert is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of robbery with a firearm or other dangerous weapon in the 2008 case. The victims were a 59-year-old longtime office manager, Donna Barnhardt, and Darrell Noles, 44, who was at the plant applying for a job.
The victims’ families have been notified about the arrest in the case, Concord officials said.
The Sun Drop murders in Concord
In less than three weeks, it will be the 18th anniversary of the killings at 360 Old Salisbury-Concord Road near Branchview Drive and Cabarrus Avenue.
On the morning of June 13, 2008, Barnhardt had arrived to work just as she had regularly done for the past 18 years. But on that Friday, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time, Barnhardt was planning to leave work early for a family vacation in Myrtle Beach. Her screensaver flashed photos of her granddaughters playing in the surf.
Outside, Noles’ wife had dropped him off so he could turn in a job application at the King family-run soda bottling plant, a staple of the community and tightknit workplace for over a century.
Barnhardt had planned to leave around noon.
But at about 10 a.m., Concord police responded to a reported shooting inside the Sun Drop building. Authorities at the time said someone had walked through the plant’s door, snatched some money and vending machine change in the front office, and gunned down Barnhardt and Noles before fleeing.
Two months after the shooting, company President John King told the Observer that the magnitude of the tragedy usually hit him when he prepared to leave for the day and walked by Barnhardt’s desk.
“Everyone is hurting,” he said. “It’ll never be the same.”
A break in the Sun Drop case
As Concord police swarmed the area during their initial investigation, witnesses told about seeing a slender man wearing a white shirt and blue jeans leave the scene on foot in the direction of Cabarrus Avenue. A composite sketch of the suspect was released in September 2008.
Police said they followed up on hundreds of tips from the community, and over the years continued to investigate and submit evidence for lab tests as technology evolved.
A break in the case finally happened late last year.
“Through a meticulous reexamination of evidence and the pursuit of previously undeveloped leads, detectives uncovered critical information” that led them to Talbert, the city said in its statement. Authorities did not elaborate on what that information was.
But it was enough to reach out to Port Angeles police on Dec. 19, 2025, about Talbert.
Port Angeles, a city of 20,000 people in northwest Washington, is the gateway to Olympic National Park and sits across from Victoria, Canada.
Working with the Port Angeles Police Department, Concord detectives made a cross-country trip on May 18. Talbert was in custody three days later.
He remains without bail in the Clallam County Jail pending extradition to North Carolina.
The case remains under investigation, and Concord police said they would not have additional comment. But they encouraged anyone with additional information to call 704-920-5000 or 704-932-7463 to remain anonymous.
Reaction to an arrest in the Sun Drop murders
Public reaction to a breakthrough in the cold case was swift on social media, despite the city releasing information shortly before 11 p.m. on the night of Memorial Day. There were over 70 comments in the space of an hour.
“Whole city of concord sleeping better tonight with this news,” one man wrote on the city’s Facebook page.
“Great work CPD! Every time I pass that facility I think of those poor people and their families. Hope this brings them a little closure,” a woman wrote.
Another woman added simply, “Never thought we’d see the day!”
