A family is distraught after a funeral service ended with a surprise visit from the Lee County Sheriff's Office.
Things took a turn from solemn to chaotic as a crowd left from a cemetery to a parking lot.
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They were met with law enforcement as Lee County deputies hoped to make an arrest in the 1995 murder of Rodney Cotten.
Deputies received several tips the suspect Willard Smith might have been in attendance. Authorities said the murder Smith is suspected of being involved in occurred in the Sanford area 30 years ago.
Deputies did bring someone into custody, but it wasn't the suspect.
The scene grew contentious as family members confronted deputies and demanded answers about the unusual ordeal.
"It was the most unreal thing I’ve ever seen," said Bryant McKinney, a family friend of the man detained.
"It’s not a common practice of ours to do that but this was very exigent because we’ve never had a physical location of our suspect before,” said Sheriff Brian Estes.
Estes said Smith and his brother are one year apart and had matching physical descriptions.
"We’ve had people say that we’ve picked up the wrong person, but no one has made a statement that Willard Eugene Smith was not at the service, which makes me feel like he’s still in the area," Estes said.
Though it's not usual to attempt to bring suspects into custody at funerals, Estes said it was a chance to make an arrest in a decades-long murder case.
"We never want to upset a family or do anything to disrespect anyone, but we had to go check that out to see if we could locate him," Estes said. "I kind of feel like it was our only opportunity."
Family members said the detained brother was at the sheriff's office for eight hours before he was released. The service was in memory of Kabem Smith.
A social media post from the office gives more background on their decision to post up outside the funeral.
"For almost 30 years previous tips have indicated that Willard Smith has used several aliases, including family member’s names. One of which, is the name Willard Partridge, which was listed in the obituary as a surviving brother. Tips also say that he has come back to the area on previous occasions to visit family."
The office said there was never an attempt to disrupt the service.
A $10,000 reward is up for information leading to an arrest.