A North Carolina woman says she paid a man $3,500 for her son’s headstone to be placed on his grave before his birthday in September — but five months later, she claims there’s still no headstone in sight.
In January 2025, Riunite Staton’s 21-year-old son, Ha’son, passed away. She told The North Carolina Beat she began searching for a headstone in Edenton but found limited options.
“The places I did talk to, they said the time frame was 3-6 months,” Staton recalled.
In February, Staton said a cousin told her about Tim Edwards of Tim Edwards Memorial in Belvidere. She said she met with Edwards at smaller location he operates in Edenton. After describing a headstone she had seen and liked, she says Edwards told her he made it.
Staton says she told Edwards she wanted that headstone and wanted it installed before Ha’son’s September 25 birthday.
“He said, ‘It only take me 2-4 weeks turnaround,’ and I was like, ‘Really?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah,’” she told The North Carolina Beat.
Her cousin, who Staton says was present during the conversation, also heard Edwards promise the 2–4 week turnaround. Edwards quoted her $3,500 for the larger headstone.
Staton says that on the way to make the payment, her car broke down as she was turning into Edwards’ driveway. She asked Edwards if she could pay half first since she didn’t know how much it would cost to repair her car.
“He told me, ‘Well, the fastest you get all the money to me, I can go ahead and get out there,’” she claimed.
Her cousin later came to get the car, and Staton says she decided to go ahead and pay the full $3,500. A receipt she provided to The North Carolina Beat shows a payment dated March 4, 2025, with the salesperson listed as Tim Edwards for a gray granite headstone with a black tile finish, including lettering and inscription, marked “Paid In Full” and signed “Timothy Edwards” at the top left corner.
After not hearing from Edwards weeks after the payment, by April — Staton says Edwards sent her sketches of the design. She chose the one she liked and believed installation would be done in 2-4 weeks. But months later, she says the headstone still hasn’t been placed.
Riunite shared a photo of what the design for her son’s headstone would look like, shown below:
“Every time I ask, it’s another reason,” she alleged. “First his father-in-law was sick and dying, then it was ‘give me two weeks.’ Everything is always two weeks.”
The original promise of 2–4 weeks has now stretched into five months, according to Staton. She says if she had been told from the start it would take that long, she would have understood — but feels the short timeline was misleading.
“If he had come out front and said, ‘Ya know, it’s going to take me five months,’ okay, that’s understandable. But you specifically told me 2–4 weeks,” she said.
Staton also claims Edwards told her he was waiting on people to mark the grave. She says that when she checked with local officials to see if any permits had been issued to Edwards for her son’s headstone, she was told no permits had been obtained to install it.
“They told me no,” she said.
Frustrated and heartbroken, Staton says she feels wronged — both financially and emotionally.
“$3,500 just don’t drop out the sky for me because I am a single mom of five with two in college,” she told The North Carolina Beat. “It’s depressing because when I go and visit my son, all I have to look at is an empty space with just a name tag.”
She says “Tim Edwards made me feel as if my son doesn’t even matter.”
The North Carolina Beat reached out to Tim Edwards for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
