Delia D'Ambra

However, in the spring of 2014, the idyllic and inviting image of the region was tragically shattered when one ruthless predator tore through the community on a violent rampage.

The fracture effect of his actions on the people there was immeasurable.

But it was the brave sacrifice of one Forest Service officer and his canine partner that ultimately led to the perpetrator's undoing.

This is Park Predators.

Around 8.45 on Wednesday morning, March 12, 2014, Burke County Sheriff's deputies received a call from a concerned member of the community.

The caller said they worked with a woman named Rhonda Wisnett, and they were pretty worried about her because she'd missed several days of work and wasn't picking up the phone.

Rhonda's co-worker asked the sheriff's office to send a unit out to her house to do a welfare check, you know, just to see what was going on.

Where Rhonda lived with her husband Levi was on Fish Hatchery Road in Morganton, North Carolina.

The area was densely wooded and mountainous, and Fish Hatchery Road itself is a two-lane road where the homes are spread out.

So definitely not your typical layout for a residential community.

On the way to the couple's house, the responding deputy noticed a vehicle pass him going in the opposite direction.

Inside was a man that the deputy recognized as Rhonda's adult stepson, Troy Wisnett.

38-year-old Troy was a troubled guy who'd had run-ins with the sheriff's office before, so the deputy clocked him the moment he saw him.

During this brief interaction, the deputy didn't think much of seeing Troy, though, because he knew that his dad and stepmom lived just down the road.

So doing what he was asked to do, the deputy continued on towards the Wisnitz house to conduct a welfare check.

A few minutes later, though, everything changed when the deputy made a disturbing discovery after pulling up to the family's home and knocking on the front door.

The entryway seemed to be locked, but on the front porch, there was what appeared to be reddish brown traces of blood.

When the deputy peered inside a door window, he saw what looked like a trail of blood winding through the home.

After forcibly entering the house, the deputy followed the blood trail down to Rhonda and Levi's basement, where he found the 55-year-old and 60-year-old dead from gunshot wounds.

Additional investigators and personnel responded to the crime scene and quickly determined that both victims had been deceased for at least a few days and had likely died sometime between Sunday afternoon, March 9th, and Monday morning, March 10th.