Read the original article on the Asheville Watchdog website.
Authorities mistook man with same last name as supplier, but never followed up after their error
A Candler woman’s overdose death three years ago led investigators to a North Carolina dealer peddling illegal drugs through the mail to addicts nationwide.
But the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office investigated the wrong man and failed to pursue leads that could have put James Adam Earwood out of business, according to federal court testimony. Seven months later, in December 2021, an Iowa man died from fentanyl and heroin he bought from Earwood, who boasted of his “first confirmed kill” as evidence of his drugs’ potency.
Earwood of Rutherfordton had been identified as a likely supplier of the fentanyl that killed Rachel Scillitani, 29, in her Candler apartment in May 2021. But Buncombe sheriff’s detectives interviewed and cleared another man with the same last name, Special Agent Bryce Husak of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service testified at an April federal court hearing.
“It is your testimony today that they were actually investigating the wrong Adam Earwood?” a prosecutor asked.
“Correct,” Husak responded.
There was no follow-up investigation of the right Earwood or effort to determine his whereabouts around the time Scillitani bought the fentanyl and died, nor were records on a payment app she used to buy drugs subpoenaed, the agent testified.
Continue reading “After fentanyl killed a Candler woman, sheriff’s investigators cleared the wrong man. Months later, an Iowa man was dead”