Category: Breaking News

Local mom wants to spread awareness of the dangers of fentanyl

By Tessa Bradshaw at the Kernersville News June 1, 2023.

On Monday, 18 billboards went up around the Triad with faces of those the community has lost due tofentanyl poi­soning. One of those faces was Walker­ town local Christian Wilson who died from fentanyl poisoning in 2019. The billboard reads, ‘join us and fight illicit fentanyl.Christian, Forever 19.

Christian’s mother, Crystal Wilson, of Walkertown, has made it her mission to help others who are going through this and to also help bring awareness to the rising issue of fentanyl in the county, state and country.

She explained that the 18 “angels” on the billboards, including her son, are only a fraction of the people that North Caro­lina has lost to fentanyl poisoning.

We say poisoning, not overdose. It is a poisoning because they don’t know what they’re taking.

An overdose is taking too much of a known substance.They don’tknow that this is there, so it’s considered a poisoning.

Crystal Wilson

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Burdened after Death: What you should know about North Carolina’s autopsy crisis

A severe autopsy backlog in North Carolina has added to the financial and emotional burdens of grieving families, a Charlotte Observer and News & Observer investigation revealed.

Here are three takeaways from Burdened after Death:

When people in North Carolina die unexpectedly, required medical investigations usually take more than 20 weeks. In nearly 1,400 cases since 2020, they took more than a year.

That crisis heaps more burdens on grieving family members during one of the worst periods of their lives. Some can’t touch funds they are entitled to inherit, leaving their biggest bills unpaid. Many must wait months for the answer to a burning question: Why did their loved one die?

The system is bogged down chiefly because there are too many bodies and too few pathologists and toxicologists to handle the load.

Read the full article on the Raleigh News and Observer web site.

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NC’s major autopsy delays impact families, law enforcement

When someone dies unexpectedly in North Carolina, it can take months, or even more than a year, before a required autopsy is completed. The state’s huge delays leave families wondering and in limbo, unable to move on and do crucial things like claim insurance money. That’s according to an investigation by the The Charlotte Observer and News and Observer of Raleigh, which found the delays have grown significantly worse over the past decade.

Joining us now to talk more about it is The Charlotte Observer’s Ames Alexander, one of the reporters who wrote the story.

Read the full article or listen to the interview on the WFAE website.

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WCSO arrests woman for death by distribution, first charge of it’s kind in Watauga

Other man to face similar charges once released from jail on unrelated case

WATAUGA — The Watauga County Sheriff’s Office has charged a woman with death by distribution in what is the first charge of its kind in the county.

Angelina G. Miller, 30, was arrested by the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday, June 3, after WCSO notified Alexander County that she was likely in the area.

The secured bond for the death by distribution charge was set at $500,000 by Alexander County Magistrate’s Office. She received a court date for June 28, at 9 a.m. in Watauga County District Court.

According to the Watauga County warrant, Miller allegedly “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did sell narcotics, Fentanyl, which” killed someone due to an overdose of the Fentanyl. The warrant notes that the “offender did not act with malice.”

Read the full article on the Watauga Democrat website.

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Look out for these new billboards raising awareness about North Carolina fentanyl deaths

Jeremiah Scales and 18 other faces are in rotation on two Winston-Salem billboards along Business 40.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Illicit fentanyl is a deadly drug. 

According to the state Department of Health and Human Services, there was a 22% increase in Fentanyl deaths in North Carolina in 2021.

Families of 19 of those lives taken too soon were brave enough to put their loved one’s faces on display here in the Triad.  

A roadside tribute to Jeremiah Scales warmed the hearts of his grandmother and mother Andrea Scales.  

“To see his face on the screen with other angels who have lost their lives to such a deadly poison,” Scales said. “His beautiful face is still alive in his home city it means so much.”

Jeremiah and 18 other faces are in rotation on two Winston-Salem billboards along Business 40.

Read the full story on the WFMY website.

FENTVIC.ORG  NC BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN

May 29-June 26, 2023, 24/7, digital and illuminated.

Winston-Salem, Forsyth County NC, 2 locations

Purpose is to raise awareness of the 13,376 NC victims of illicit fentanyl poisonings and to generate public safety conversations within communities and families about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly counterfeit pills.  Illicit fentanyl killed over 523 Forsyth County residents in the past 9 years, 2013-August 2022.  (source:  North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics Death Certificate Data)

These are the first billboards of the FENTVIC.ORG Campaign.  They feature 19 NC illicit fentanyl poisoning victims with permission of their families.  The campaign will run in other cities throughout NC exclusively featuring NC illicit fentanyl poisoning victims.  Future campaign locations and dates TBD.

FENTVIC.ORG  NC BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN

Administered by Fentanyl Victims Network of NC (fentvic), www.fentvic.org,

Barb Walsh, Executive Director, 919-614-3830, barb@fentvic.org.  Fentvic is a charitable nonprofit located in Cary NC.  EIN #88-3921380.  Fentvic fights illicit fentanyl in NC. Fentvic advocates for public safety for all and justice for NC families permanently damaged by illicit fentanyl poisonings.

In partnership with Forgotten Victims of NC, Patricia Drewes, Founder, 252-204-9611, patriciadrewes@yahoo.com, link to FB page:  http://forgottenvictimsofnc.org/

Campaign Locations & Artwork developed Adams Outdoor Advertising, Julie Belnap, Account Executive,336-926-3850 (cell), jbelnap@adamsoutdoor.com

FENTVIC.ORG  NC BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN: 2 locations in Winston Salem, Forsyth County

  1. Digital Group One features NC fentanyl victims Alexandra, Christian, Gabriella, Heaven, Hunter, Jared, Jeremiah, Robert, Sophia, and Zack:  Billboard location:  sign 305-4.  B40 .12 miles East of Stratford Road N, Exit 3C N/side of highway Facing west.  You can park off Miller Street (near Publix) behind the Mayberry’s Restaurant to view this digital (parking lot area there for viewing) Google Maps.
  2. Digital Group Two features NC fentanyl victims Abigail, Ashley, Carissa, Chase, Marshall, Martin, Michiko, Mikey, Sophia, and Vincent.  Billboard Location:  sign 602-4. B40 .37 miles West of Old Greensboro Rd/ Linville Road (Exit 10)NS Facing west.  Take Exit 10 to Linville Road, and head towards Smokin’ Harley Davidson dealer.  Go past the dealer toward Pepsi plant (turn around and you can park on side of service road for viewing) Google Maps.
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NC law that punishes drug dealers not widely used despite increase in overdose deaths

For three years, Logan Overcash and his family waited for answers and waited for justice.

“We’ve got closure, but it’s not the closure that we want,” Overcash said.

Overcash’s brother-in-law Cory Moore went missing in September 2020; five months later police found his body in a wooded area in Sanford.

Overcash remembers Moore as a great guy who was full of funny stories.

“You could pretty much put him in any social environment and he would adapt. You know what I mean? Like, he could he can talk to anyone,” Overcash remembered.

While Overcash said Moore battled some demons throughout his life, he was on the right path before his death.

“It was just kind of one of the things that, you know, we tried to protect him from it as much as we could, and I guess it just found its way back to him,” Overcash said.

An investigation later uncovered that Moore died from an overdose. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office went on to arrest the individual who they believed sold him the drugs with a charge called ‘ death by distribution.

Read the full article on the ABC11 website.

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County hosts coaches to discuss drugs

The Surry County Office of Substance Abuse Recovery hosted its first ever Sports and Drugs Awareness seminar last week in Dobson. Inside were dozens of coaches, educators, and members of the community to discuss substance use disorder and what role coaches can play in stemming the tide of drugs in Surry County.

Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Chuvalo J. Truesdell was the keynote speaker for the event that also featured track coach and Olympian Kathy Freeman who offered her perspective.

Read the full article on the Mount Airy News website.

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Ashley Whaby Unknowingly Took Fentanyl and Died, So Why Has No One Been Held Accountable, Grandma Asks

Ashley Whaby was found dead the day after a party where she may have unknowingly ingested fentanyl. No one has been charged in her death, and her grandmother, Debbie Peeden, wants answers.

Ashley Whaby was at a party with a few friends one fall night in 2021 when she ingested a drug she believed she had used many times before. But unbeknownst to her, it was laced with a lethal dose of fentanyl, her loved ones say.

Ashley’s death left Debbie Peeden, her grandmother and the woman who raised her, with a life-altering wound and an unbreakable resolve for answers. But thus far, she’s gotten few that have satisfied her, she tells Inside Edition Digital in an in-depth interview. 

Read the full article on the Inside Edition website.

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Fentanyl-related deaths among children increased more than 30-fold between 2013 and 2021

CNN — 

Fatal overdoses involving fentanyl have surged in recent years in the US and new research shows that deaths among children have increased significantly, mirroring trends among adults.

More than 5,000 children and teens have died from overdoses involving fentanyl in the past two decades, according to data published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. More than half of those deaths occurred in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

There were about 1,550 pediatric deaths from fentanyl in 2021 – over 30 times more than in 2013, when the wave of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids started in the US.

Watch the segment and read the full article on the CNN web site.

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