Troy, I've moved your lovely photo to where it should be under more recent taxonomies of this family--Necrophila americana.

I hope you don't mind--I'm revising this family.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

I think this is Silpha americana, the American Carrion Beetle.

For a nice comparison of the Silpha, see Dillon and Dillon, Manual of Common Beetles, plate XIX [cite 2732] They illustrate S. surinamensis (seen once dead at a light by me here in Durham, NC), inaequalis, americana (seen by me several times in Durham), S. lapponica, and S. noveboracensis. The last resembles americana but is smaller, and the dark mark is more cruciform, and runs to the edge of the pronotum. Abdomen does not stick out much from under elytra, either. Keep a look-out for it--is on the list at NCSU for North Carolina. (I've seen it called "Crusader Carrion Beetle" in some guide, I think.)

Also see this page on Silpha at Insects of Cedar Creek

Taxonomy has been shuffled quite a bit in this family. Looks like the genus Silpha (in the New Wolrd, perhaps), has been eliminated. Here's my very quick summary, based on the NCSU site. I've just summarized the species they list for North Carolina that were under Silpha.

http://inventory.ent.ncsu.edu/tree/dsp_genera.cfm?familyID=250
Genus information in family Silphidae.

Looking at this taxonomy and specimen records, looks like
S. surinamensis--->Necrodes surinamensis (found in NC, abdt. in collection)
S americana---> Necrophila americanum (found in NC, abdt. in collection)
S. inaeuqlis--->Oiceoptoma inaequalis (found in NC, common in collection)
S. noveboracensis --->Oiceoptoma noveboracensis (found in NC, common in collection)

Nearctica list follows this taxonomy too:
http://www.nearctica.com/nomina/beetle/cols.htm#anchor192742

Those taxonomists just can't leave things simple. I don't see how S. americana and S. noveobracensis can be put into separate genera--they look practically identical! Oh well, have to check Arnett.
(Arnett maintains Silpha in the traditional classification.) I'll write some guides and mention the alternative names in remarks.