Barb Walsh, Executive Director, 919-614-3830 barb@fentvic.org. website: www.fentvic.org Fentanyl Victims Network of NC (fentvic.org), 501(c)(3) EIN 88-3921380
Local Co-Host:ย ย Lisa Bennett, Mother of Mason Bennett, Forever 22. Valued member of fentvc.org. Public safety, education & justice advocate.ย ย 229-873-5648ย ย lisawbennett@me.com
Purpose
SAVE LIVES! Public Safety Education Prevention Tools + Naloxone Distribution & Training
Listen-Learn-Interview devastated fentanyl victim families. It could happen to anyone!
Spark public safety conversations about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly counterfeit pressed pills (Adderall, Xanax, Percocet),ย and access to life-saving naloxone in schools and the community
Connect NC Fentanyl Victim Families to one another for support and advocacy.
A Greenville woman has been arrested and charged in Craven County related to the overdose death of a Rocky Run Road man in Dec. 2023.
Amy Sue Gunter, 47, was arrested on Thursday, Jan. 9 after an investigation by the Craven County Sheriff’s Office.
In late December 2023 a man was found deceased in his vehicle at a Rocky Run Road residence. The death appeared to be the result of an overdose, and the North Carolina State Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed the death was from a fentanyl overdose.
Officials say that an investigation revealed the victim had purchased narcotics from Gunter prior to his death.
Gunter has been charged with the following:
Felony Sell and Deliver Schedule II Controlled Substance
Possession with Intent to Manufacture, Sell, and Deliver Schedule II Controlled Substance
Gunter was being held at the Craven County Detention Center on a $100,000 secured bond as of Jan. 9.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) โ A Wilmington man was arrested Monday in connection with a deadly overdose in Raleigh earlier this month, a warrant shows.
According to the warrant issued by the Raleigh Police Department, 23-year-old Martin Lawrence Mulkins Jr. sold fentanyl and cocaine to Jeffrey Warren on Jan. 5, which led to Warrenโs death.
Mulkins is charged with death by distribution/sale, a felony offense, according to the warrant.
Court records show Mulkins received a $5,000 secured bond. He is scheduled to appear in Wake County Court on Tuesday.
A man holds a poster showing Wilson County residents who have died as a result of fentanyl. Families shared their stories outside the Wilson County Courthouse in September to bring awareness to the dangers of the drug. Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina will hold a town hall meeting in Wilson on Feb. 1 at the Foundation YMCA of Wilson.ย Drew C. Wilson | Times file photo
Event organizers are sounding the alarm on the fentanyl crisis that continues to claim lives. The Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina will hold a town hall meeting in Wilson from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 1, at Foundation YMCA of Wilson at 233 Nash St.ย
The purpose of the event, organizers say, is to spark public safety conversations about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, particularly when itโs found in counterfeit pressed pills like Adderall, Xanax and Percocet.
Organizers will also be distributing naloxone, which goes by the brand name Narcan, and train those attending on how to administer the lifesaving antidote. Local families will also share their heart-wrenching stories of how their loved ones have died from fentanyl poisonings. The event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.
ADDRESSING THE ISSUE
Barb Walsh, founder of Fentanyl Victims Network, has been working with Wilson families who are reeling from the loss of their own children who have died as a result of unintentional fentanyl deaths. The hope, she said, is to bring awareness to a problem that is plaguing the country, the state and Wilson.
โThis is a public safety problem we want to address,โ Walsh said.
Walsh is holding several town halls throughout the state.
โI chose Wilson because there is a pocket of very active families,โ Walsh said. โWe have two death by distribution cases going on (in the court system).
Local elected officials, public health professionals, advocates, parents of fentanyl victims, first responders and representatives from the Wilson County Substance Prevention Coalition and the Wilson County district attorneyโs office will be in attendance at the Feb. 1 town hall meeting. Local law enforcement members have also been invited, organizers said.
โI think itโs important for people to see these numbers and realize how many people are dying,โ said Lisa Bennett, co-organizer of the event. Bennett lost her son, 22-year-old Mason Bennett, in February 2023. He died after taking what he believed was a Percocet, a prescription painkiller, but it was laced with fentanyl, she has said. Since her sonโs death, Bennett has been working with Walsh and her nonprofit.
Walsh said 18,457 people in North Carolina have died as a result of fentanyl over a 10-year period.
From 2013 to October 2023, there have been 138 fentanyl deaths in Wilson County alone, according to state data Walsh has compiled.
SOUNDING THE ALARM
Walsh founded the Raleigh-based nonprofit after her daughter, Sophia Walsh, died from fentanyl poisoning in August 2021. Walshโs daughter drank what she thought was a bottled water from someoneโs refrigerator.
Unbeknownst to her, it contained diluted fentanyl. Sophia died, and no one called 911 until 10 hours later, Walsh said. No one was charged.
โWe didnโt know what she died from until five months later,โ Walsh said.
After her daughterโs death, Walsh channeled her grief into research, advocacy and justice for other victims. Walsh has worked across the state to bring awareness to the dangers of fentanyl and has worked with families to demand justice in their cases by utilizing state law and getting those responsible charged.
โIT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR CHILDโ
Walsh said thereโs a misconception about fentanyl deaths. She said not all deaths are the result of someone in active addiction. Some people are simply experimenting.
Seven out of 10 โstreetโ pressed copycat pills contain lethal fentanyl additives, according to officials.
Fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, is a synthetic opioid that can be lethal even in small doses.
โIt could happen to your child,โ Walsh said. โThe pressed pills are the culprit.โ
Organizers hope to educate families and encourage parents to talk with their children about the dangers that are out there.
โIf we can stop just one family from having to go through this it will be worth it,โ Bennett said.
Bennett said more lives will be saved if more people are armed with Narcan.
โThey cannot save themselves,โ Walsh said. โSomeone in the community will have to save them.โ
For more information about Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina visit www.fentvic.org.
Two Harnett County men are facing death by distribution charges in the April 2024 overdose death of a 29-year-old wife and mother of three.
Jonathan William Smith
Cody Keen Pope
The Harnett County Sheriffโs Office arrested 32-year-old Cody Keen Pope, of 2717 Old Stage Road South in Erwin, and 42-year-old Jonathan William Smith, of 134 S. Railroad St., Coats, in the death of Logan Brianne Carr. Both men face charges of death by distribution through the unlawful sale or delivery of certain controlled substances, namely fentanyl and methamphetamine in this case.
Carr was a homemaker and the mother of one son and two daughters.
โLogan was a beautiful bright soul with sparkling eyes, big smile, and a quick laugh,โ her obituary states. โShe never saw the bad in people, only the hope of what they could be.โ
Prior to her death, Carr was accepted to the community college system and was planning to pursue a degree in criminal justice with the goal of becoming a probation officer. She was battling an addiction the day she died on Sunday, April 14, 2024. She is survived by her children, husband, mother, father, brother, sister, sisterโs family and a host of other family members and friends.
Logan Brianne Carr, 29, died of an overdose on April 14, 2024.
Pope and Smith were both out on bond in other cases when they were taken into custody for the deadly distribution charge on Wednesday. In Popeโs other case, heโs facing charges of identity theft and obtaining property through a false pretense from a reported offense in January 2024, when he was accused of transferring $2,500 out of another guyโs CashApp into his account. He was initially arrested on those charges six weeks after Carrโs death.
Smith was out on a $500,000 bond, awaiting a December 2025 hearing on charges of felony possession of marijuana, four counts of trafficking in meth and trafficking in opioids when he was picked up Wednesday.
In a first appearance hearing Thursday, Popeโs bond was set at $750,000 secured and Smithโs was set at $1 million secured.
NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) – Three people have been arrested in connection to the fatal overdose of an 83-year-old in New Hanover County.
The New Hanover County Sheriffโs Office (NHCSO) says on Dec. 6, 2024, deputies found an 83-year-old woman dead inside her home on Horndale Drive in New Hanover County.
On Jan. 10, deputies arrested 30-year-old Michael Britt, 46-year-old Daniel Reaves, and 45-year-old Melissa Norris-Cribb in connection to the overdose.
Britt was charged with:
Death by Distribution
Trafficking in Opium or Heroin/Fentanyl
Trafficking Methamphetamines
Possession with the intent to Manufacture, Sell and Deliver Fentanyl
Sell and Deliver Schedule I (Fentanyl)
Conspiracy to Sell Schedule I (Fentanyl)
Maintain/Sell/Deliver/Possess within 1000 feet of a school
Possession of a firearm by a felon
According to NHCSO, Britt received an additional 23 drug-related charges and has a $1,190,000 secured bond.
Cribb was charged with:
Death by Distribution
Possession with the intent to Manufacture, Sell, and Deliver Schedule I (Fentanyl)
Sell and Deliver Schedule I (Fentanyl)
Conspiracy to Sell Schedule I (Fentanyl)
According to NHCSO, Cribb received a $155,000 secured bond.
Reaves was charged with:
Death by Distribution
Possession with the intent to Manufacture, Sell, and Deliver Schedule I (Fentanyl)
Sell and Deliver Schedule 1 (Fentanyl)
Conspiracy to Sell Schedule I (Fentanyl)
According to NHCSO, Reaves received no bond as he waits for his first appearance in New Hanover County Superior Court.
Barb Walsh, Executive Director of Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, fights to save lives and get justice for those killed by fentanyl poisoning. Joining Barb in the fight are Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina members Michelle Murdock and Betsy Ballard Moore.
There are two episodes being aired, Part 1 is airing January 11th, Part 2 will air one week later, January 18.
When autopsy backlogs in North Carolina threatened Union County officersโ ability to prosecute drug overdose cases, they opened their own center to continue their yearslong drug purge amid state delays.
A temporary autopsy center that opened in the bottom of a Monroe hospital Dec. 17 is the ninth regional center in the state. Itโs also one countyโs latest attempt to combat two issues plaguing the state: drug deaths and autopsy delays.
The North Carolina General Assembly since its 2023 session has given Union County $22 million to open the South Piedmont Regional Autopsy Center under oversight from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The county soon hopes find a permanent building to better host eight more counties and get the proper accreditation to help with the toxicology reports backlog, too.
Autopsy and toxicology backlogs have been caused by increasing overdose deaths and too few forensic pathologists, a Charlotte Observer investigation revealed last year. They leave grieving families and investigating law enforcement waiting too long for answers.
For Union County, those delays were made worse when the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner moved Union Countyโs autopsies from Mecklenburg County โ less than an hour away โ to Wake County โ about three hours away โ in 2022.
The switch was supposed to help with backlogs, but transportation time coupled with the Raleigh centerโs staffing shortages created more delays, said Tony Underwood, the chief deputy of operations with the Union County Sheriffโs Office.
Each Raleigh pathologist, the Observer previously reported, completes, on average, 557 autopsies each year. Thatโs more than twice the number recommended by a national accrediting group, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley previously told the Observer.
โBottom line, plain and simple, the medical examination system is in crisis,โ Kinsley said.
The Raleigh autopsy center told Underwood it does not โroutinely do full autopsies in suspected drug overdose cases,โ he said in an interview with the Observer.
Mecklenburgโs center did, Underwood said.
The change became a problem for Union County law enforcement.
The sheriffโs office and Union District Attorney Trey Robison were charging and prosecuting drug dealers who sold deadly substances to people even before a state law paved the way to do that.
A 2019 bill introduced a โdeath by distributionโ charge to North Carolina, allowing dealers to be charged with killing someone by selling or giving them the drug that killed them. It is largely regarded as a โhard-to-proveโ charge, but Union County is among the top counties pursuing and prosecuting it, according to nonprofit research by the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.
Union County, Underwood said, had been charging dealers with second-degree murder before โdeath by distributionโ was introduced.
That meant Union County officers were routinely requesting autopsies and toxicology reports in almost every overdose case.
But in Raleigh, they sometimes needed to have โprobable causeโ that a crime was committed to request an autopsy, Underwood said. Toxicology reports, which show what substances were in a personโs system when they died, typically give probable cause.
But state toxicology reports are finished more slowly than autopsy reports, sometimes taking months or years to be completed.
In 2023 in Raleigh, the medical examinerโs office had just one forensic toxicologist to certify all drug casework, the Observer previously reported.
Union Countyโs temporary autopsy center is a step in the right direction, said Barb Walsh, the founder and executive director of Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. But North Carolina really needs more toxicologists, she said.
Walsh, whose daughter died after unknowingly drinking from a water bottle that had fentanyl in it, had to wait five months to learn what killed her daughter in 2021.
โAnd I thought that was awful,โ she said, โbut I am consistently getting calls from families that are waiting 10 and 12 months.โ
From 2019 to 2023, according to the state health department, North Carolina experienced a 26% increase in cases. That was โundoubtedly influenced by the 69% increase in suspected drug overdose cases,โ spokesperson Hannah Jones wrote in an email.
โAnother regional autopsy center is a welcome addition to the NC Medical Examiner System to help with the many cases that come through,โ she wrote.
In 2025, Underwood said, the sheriffโs office is seeking accreditation to expand its toxicology lab โ which is currently used to test blood from impaired drivers โ to be able to test blood from those who died from an overdose or fentanyl poisoning.
The indictment, announced by U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston of the Middle District of North Carolina, includes 27 people from the Tar Heel State.
All but one of the defendants are already in custody. 18 of them will have their first court appearances in North Carolina on Tuesday or Wednesday. If convicted, they face up to life in prison for narcotics conspiracy and up to 20 years for money laundering conspiracy.
The charges of narcotics distribution conspiracy include fentanyl, an ongoing problem statewide.
“There is someone who has died from fentanyl in all 100 counties,” Barb Walsh said. “We connect the families to one another so they can gain support and understanding.”
“Killed by fentanyl in a water bottle in 2021. Took us five months to find out that fentanyl killed her. Took seven months to find out that it was the water bottle,” Walsh said. “We learned that it was killing a lot of North Carolinians and that these families, like myself, felt very alone, and we felt nobody really wanted to hear how or why our loved one died. Once they heard the word fentanyl, they were not interested anymore.”
Amid Tuesday’s arrests, overdoses are going down in the state. The latest CDC data predicts deaths have dropped about 30% from 2023 to 2024. Walsh says this is likely due to education and more distribution of naloxone, which she encourages everyone to keep on them, especially since many victims do not know they’re ingesting fentanyl.
“They think it’s adderall. They think they need to do well on the test, so they’ll take a pill from that they order off Snapchat, and it contains fentanyl, and they’re dead,” Walsh said. “That is how easy someone could die.”
She also wants people experiencing grief from a fentanyl death to know there are resources available.
“Once we are gathered together and understanding our grief together, we have chosen to redirect our pain into passion, and that is to save someone else’s life by educating them about fentanyl,” Walsh said.