NORTH CAROLINA — Some North Carolina families are waiting months, even a year, to find out how their loved one died due to the state’s autopsy backlog.
Lawmakers are trying to address this in several different ways, but it is all tied up in the looming budget right now.
Barbara Walsh is the founder of Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, an organization for families of fentanyl victims. She said fixing the autopsy backlog is critical to getting families closure and justice.
For months, Walsh had no idea what killed her 24-year-old daughter Sofia who had just moved to Charlotte for a new job.
“She died because she drank a water bottle that had diluted fentanyl in it,” Walsh said.
Now, families she’s helping through her organization are waiting even longer, sometimes over a year, for toxicology results as the medical examiner’s office faces a massive backlog in autopsies.
Walsh is vocal about the state budget as some lawmakers have promised to help clear the autopsy backlog.
One of the new proposals would pay pathologists more to try and fill positions at the short-staffed medical examiner’s office, which has seen a 30% increase in cases. Cases involving suspected overdose deaths are up by 58%.
Ruling is first-of-it’s kind to go after overseas fentanyl producers
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -On Wednesday, it was announced a Summit County judge ruled in favor of the Rauh family, who’s son died of a fentanyl overdose in 2015, and ordered a Chinese cartel to pay $18 million.
Thomas “Tommy” Rauh became addicted to prescription opioids after a rollerblading accident, which then led to him using heroin.
According to his father James Rauh, Tommy tried to overcome the addiction but took a fatal dose in 2015, laced with fentanyl.
The fentanyl that killed Tommy was traced to, and produced by, the Zheng drug trafficking cartel in China.
“Our son Tommy was stolen from us,” Rauh said. “He never stood a chance against the incredibly potent poison provided by the Zhengs. All for what? The reckless and malicious greed of the Zheng cartel. To save American lives, we must stop the foreign manufacturers and traffickers of illegal fentanyl and hold them accountable.”
It’s a killer the size of grain of sand or the tip of a pen. Illegal fentanyl is running rampant through North Carolina, and the consequences are terrifying.
The Nash County Sheriff’s Office recently confiscated enough fentanyl to kill every person in the county. WRAL Investigates spent several days with undercover agents and confidential informants on the streets of Nash County as law enforcement battles the war on this poison.
Early one summer morning, the Nash County Sheriff’s Special Response Team conducted a search at a mobile home. A family, including kids in their pajamas, filed out of the home. One person came out in handcuffs.
“Children put things in their mouth. That makes it more alarming,” said one member of the response team.
With their work done at the mobile home, the next raid was on, this time in Rocky Mount. A flash bang disrupts the silence at a home on Pine Street.The SRT quickly enters the home yelling, “Come to the center of the room” and “Hands Up!”
“This is an older neighborhood with a lot of good families in it. This house — drugs were bought out of it yesterday,” WRAL Investigates was told.
A search revealed fentanyl and heroin, as well as a stolen gun. The SRT also found high-powered ammunition.
“As you can see with tips of these they are capable of going through wood-framed houses and bullet-proof vests,” investigators told WRAL Investigates.
Targeting guns, drugs and gangs is the mission of the Nash County Sheriff’s Office under the direction of Sheriff Keith Stone.
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – A man from Wilmington recently pleaded guilty to drug charges and a count of involuntary manslaughter in connection to a fatal fentanyl overdose in 2022.
Per District Attorney Ben David’s Office, Fred English pleaded guilty on Thursday, June 29, to the following charges:
Involuntary manslaughter
Possession with intent to sell and deliver schedule I controlled substance
Possession with intent to sell and deliver schedule II controlled substance
English was sentenced to 75-90 months in prison on Thursday, July 13.
The DEA calls fentanyl “the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered” yet the U.S. has struggled over administrations to address the growing crisis.
Chuck Todd discusses the sources of fentanyl coming into the US on Meet the Press
In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas discusses the crisis of fentanyl flowing into America and the Biden administration’s plan to handle an expected surge of migrants at the southern border.
Chuck Todd interviews Alejandro Mayorkas and discusses fentanyl beginning at the 8:53 mark.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) joins Meet the Press to discuss his state’s challenges in fighting addiction and the federal government’s failed responses in previous administrations.
Chuck Todd interviews Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown regarding the fentanyl crisis
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram says the Biden administration’s approach to the fentanyl epidemic is not a war on drugs but “a fight to save lives” and addresses China and Mexico’s roles in the illicit drug trade in an interview with Meet the Press.
Angie Demby, CEO and Founder of AMEND Foundation, was interviewed by WNCT TV9. Angie is working to help others who have lost loved ones to gun violence and substance abuse.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) — Scott Zimmerman and his family in Chapel Hill are devastated.
He’d rather not share the agonizing story of his oldest son’s sudden and shocking death, but he’s doing it.
Zimmerman wants to shed light on a huge problem in North Carolina’s fight against the deadly, illicit drug, fentanyl. It leaves dealers on the streets longer and loved ones waiting for justice.
Hannah Goetz from WSOC TV9 interviewed Beth Abernathy about her son Marshall’s death by distrubution case and Beth’s quest for justice. Marshall died from fentanyl poisoning on June 30, 2022.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted eight Chinese nationals and arrested two for alleged fentanyl manufacturing, distribution and more, a move that current and former federal officials confirmed to Newsweek ahead of the announcement.
Three China-based chemical companies and eight Chinese nationals were charged with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl, the DOJ said during a Friday press conference. Prosecutors said two of the eight employees have been taken into custody, including a corporate executive and marketing manager.
“When companies and employees, including those in the C-suite knowingly fuel the fentanyl crisis, they will be held to account. We will expose them as drug traffickers,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.
