Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina
Stronger Together! Grassroots campaign against illicit fentanyl in NC IRS recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity EIN: 88-3921380
In the list of horrors that a parent might ever experience, losing one’s child because she unknowingly grabbed and drank a bottle of water laced with fentanyl has to be among the worst imaginable. And tragically, that’s what happened to a North Carolina woman named Barb Walsh in 2021 when her daughter Sophia died almost instantly from fentanyl poisoning.
Read the full story and listen to the interview on the NC Newsline website.
Remembering Sophia today August 16, 2023.
CONCORD, N.C. — Families in Cabarrus County are pushing for justice for loved ones who have died from fentanyl.
Beth Abernathy said her son, Marshall Abbott, died due to fentanyl poisoning last year one day before his 30th birthday.
She attended a pretrial hearing Tuesday for Aaron Furr at the Cabarrus County Courthouse. Furr was charged in connection with the death.
Furr is one of five people in Cabarrus County who have been charged with felony death by distribution since the law went into effect in 2019.
Read the full article and watch the video on the WSOCTV9 website.
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%.
Read the full story and watch the video on the WSOCTV9 website.
This article appeared in the July 17 print edition of the Rutherford Courier. The text from the article was extracted from a scan of the print article to make it easier to read.
By Scott Carpenter
Bill’s CREEK — Fentanyl is potent opioid drug, considered 50 times more powerful than heroin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were over 107,00 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2022. and 2/3 were fentanyl related.
Fentanyl affects every corner of the United States including Rutherford County. A nonprofit group called Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl is working to raise awareness of fentanyl in order to prevent more people deaths. Maria Deckert is spearheading the effort in Rutherford County. The local organization is aligned with other similar groups across North Carolina.
Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl is hosting meeting on Sunday, August 6, from 2-4 p.m. at Bill’s Creek Community Center, 1978 Club House Road, Lake Lure. This meeting is for families and friends of those who have died from fentanyl overdoses. And it is for anyone with an interest in learning more about the fentanyl problem. Deckert said Monday. “We want to Come together, and share our stories. We want to help saves by informing the public about the dangers of fentanyl.”
For Deckert who lives in Rutherford County, this is personal. Her son, Robert Deckert, was 33 years old when he died in Florida just over four years ago. He had struggled with drug abuse for several years but was going through rehabilitation.
“I don’t want to see others die like he did. I don’t want other families to go through the grief that we are going through,” Deckert said.
Since 2013. more than 13,600 in North Carolina have been killed by fentanyl. Statistics indicate there been 84 fentanyl related deaths in Rutherford County over the past nine years.
“This means there are 84 families that are permanently damaged by fentanyl,” Deckert said.
For the same period 57 fentanyl deaths in Cleveland County and 50 fentanyl deaths in McDowell County.
Eckert says fentanyl has killed not only active drug users but people who have accidentally come into contact with the drug.
“Fentanyl does not discriminate,” she said. “Fentanyl kills babies, toddlers, middle schoolers and high schoolers, college students young adults.”
In order to better combat the fentanyl problem, Eckert says more people need to be made aware of it.
“We want to prevent more fentanyl deaths,” she said.
For more information about the Forgotten Victims of Fentanyl meeting, call 828-291-7951
You can find the original article on the Rutherford Courier website however it requires a subscription to access it.
A boyish light had just seeped back into Laird Ramirez’ eyes.
The end of wrestling season brought more free time. With it, he mixed music, cracked jokes and relaxed. He loved life, and he loved his family. He was 17 and acting like it.
His smile was big, and his heart was beating.
The Hough High School rising junior wore well the unique independence that comes with being a teenager, his mom said.
But on July 1, he needed his parents one last time.
Authorities called Gwyneth Brown and Chris Ramirez to the two-story home in the Stratford Forest neighborhood.
They needed to identify his body — robbed of light and color — at a home in Cornelius, paramedics told them.
The night before he’d come and gone from the home, a friend’s house, a few times. At around 3 a.m., he’d returned for good and was chatting with friends when he abruptly beelined for a bed. He said didn’t feel good, his friends told his parents.
Twelve hours later, friends found him dead.
A fatal dose of fentanyl — from a pill he thought was a Percocet — killed him, his mom says.
Nine days later, police arrested and charged 21-year-old Ehsanullah “Sean” Ayaar with death by distribution, according to the Cornelius Police Department. He’s accused of supplying the drug that killed a juvenile, police said previously. A police statement indicates the death was in the Stratford Forest neighborhood.
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.
Read the full article and watch the clip on the ABC11 website.
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.
Watch the clip on YouTube or the WSOC TV9 web site.
This is a two-part series originally published in July 2018 by Elizabeth Cook
SALISBURY — The message on White House stationery is brief. The president thanks Amy Morris of Salisbury for her letter about daughter Taylor’s overdose and death in November 2017. He and Melania send their prayers, he says. And he pledges his commitment to battle the opioid epidemic. “My Administration is fighting this crisis on all fronts, and examples like yours motivate me to keep up the fight,” the letter says. Below was his distinctive signature in bold, black ink: Donald J. Trump. Amy was shocked to receive the response. The president’s message mentioned Taylor by name. Amy believes Trump wants to see change. But she is not waiting around to see what happens. She’s sharing the story of her daughter’s death to bring opioids out of the forgotten shadows and open other parents’ eyes. “My concern is I don’t want to see another mother go through the heartache that I went through,” Amy says, “and I know that it’s happening over and over.”
Read all of Part 1 on the Salisbury Post website.
Read all of Part 2 on the Salisbury Post website.