 An executive at National Spinning, a textile factory in Washington, North Carolina, Von Stein was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in his home as the result of a plot devised by his stepson, Christopher Wayne Pritchard.Von Stein's wife, Bonnie (Pritchard's mother), was also attacked, but survived.Pritchard's friend James Bartlett Upchurch III was convicted of first-degree murder, while Pritchard and another co-conspirator, Gerald Neal Henderson, were convicted of aiding and abetting the murder.