Read the original article on the Raleigh News & Observer website (may require subscription).
Tag: news & observer
In one decade, 170 babies, kids and teens died in NC after fentanyl encounters
Read the original article on the Raleigh News & Observer website.
One hundred and seventy babies, kids and teens in North Carolina died after fentanyl exposure between 2015 and 2024, new state data shows.
Infants, children younger than 5 and teenagers aged 13 to 17 were the most likely to die after fentanyl exposure here during the past decade, according to updated data from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
The data, focused on fentanyl-positive deaths between 2015 and 2024, was presented by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to a committee of the state Child Fatality Task Force last week.
Fentanyl is extremely dangerous because its residue is easy to ingest, and drug paraphernalia like needles or spoon often contains enough fentanyl to kill a small child. In one toddler death cited by the medical examinerโs office, a 1-year-old was exposed to fentanyl left on a cotton ball next to the bed where the mother and child slept.
โIllicit fentanyl really is one of the substances that is predominantly toxic to the pediatric population,โ Sandra Bishop-Freeman, chief toxicologist and forensic laboratory director at the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told the Charlotte Observer.
Among teenagers, accidental ingestion often comes via other drugs โ even borrowing what a teen thinks is a Tylenol from a classmate could lead to an overdose from a laced pill. In a case cited by the medical examinerโs office, a 16-year-old who died of fentanyl overdose took what they thought was Xanax at a party.
More 17-year-olds died than any other group among minors between 2015 and 2024, with 52 lives lost. Infants less than 6 months old had the second-highest death toll, with the total reaching 24.
Among racial groups, American Indian and Black residents experienced the highest number of pediatric fentanyl-positive deaths in the state, the data says.
And loss of life overall in North Carolina is much higher than a decade ago โ growing from 243 deaths in 2015 to 1,954 in 2024.
Despite pediatric dangers, deaths decline in recent years
There is some good news: Despite the number of fentanyl-related deaths remaining elevated compared to decades past, the rate has begun to slow over the past several years.
Fentanyl deaths among all age groups fell 26% statewide in October 2025 compared to the previous year, with deaths in Mecklenburg County down to 142 from 192.
Overdose deaths have been declining the past two years, CDC data released Wednesday shows. North Carolinaโs fentanyl overdose rate among all age groups fell by more than 30% between August 2024 and 2025.
Increased access to preventatives, such as the overdose-reversing nasal spray naloxone, could be helping slow overdose death trends.
A multifaceted prevention strategy has likely helped contributed to the slowdown in overdose deaths in North Carolina, according to Kella Hatcher, executive director of the NC Child Fatality Task Force. Her group has been studying pediatric overdoses for several years.
โYou have to keep working on a combination of efforts to make progress, and thatโs the case with many [preventable] causes of death,โ Hatcher said.
A 2025 Prevention Block Grant funded several primary prevention programs, including youth education efforts that served close to 9,000 during the year. Another program distributed more than 11,000 lock boxes and 15,000 medication disposal kits, according to Tuesdayโs presentation.
Opioid settlement dollars are also funding prevention work in many North Carolina counties. The state is receiving $1.4 billion as part of national settlements with opioid companies, money aimed at bringing resources to communities harmed by the opioid epidemic.
The medical examinerโs office will continue to share data with state and county agencies focused on helping curb the preventable childhood deaths, toxicologist Bishop-Freeman said.
โDespite the trends possibly plateauing, these pediatric deaths are still too many,โ Bishop-Freeman said.
Woman charged with killing man who overdosed on fentanyl, Wake sheriff says
Read the original article on the Raleigh News & Observer website.
A woman has been charged in connection with the fentanyl overdose death of a man she allegedly sold drugs to earlier this year, the Wake County Sheriffโs Office said.
On March 29, deputies responded to a home on Panther Lake Road in the southern part of Wake County for a death investigation and found 39-year-old Matthew Godbold unresponsive, according to a news release. The initial investigation pointed to a possible overdose.
Evidence submitted to the Wake County Bureau of Forensic Services tested positive for fentanyl, the release stated.
Deputies determined Lauren Tasha Olsen, 37, had sold drugs to Godbold that led to his death. She was charged Monday with aggravated death by distribution and with felony sell/deliver a schedule II controlled substance, according to the release.
In 2017, Olsen was convicted of attempted drug trafficking of a schedule I controlled substance, court records show. She was sentenced to between 2 years and 1 month and 3 years and 6 months in jail, with her parole ending in May 2020.
Fatal drug overdoses down in North Carolina
Godboldโs death comes as the number of fentanyl and other overdose deaths in North Carolina has declined.
There were 259 suspected overdose deaths in June 2025 compared to 275 in June 2024, according to the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. There was an 8% decrease in such deaths year to date (1,541) compared to January to August 2024 (1,666).
There were 175 fentanyl-positive deaths in April 2025 compared to 204 in April 2024. There was a 28% decrease in such deaths year to date (588) compared to the same time period in 2024 (822), the medical examinerโs office reported.
Man arrested in overdose death faces new charges
NC man sentenced for fentanyl sale linked to Cary hotel overdose death
Read the original article on the Raleigh News and Observer website.
A North Carolina man whose distribution of fentanyl contributed to a fatal overdose in a Cary hotel has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
Keymon Leahke Cofield, 25, of Vance County pleaded guilty in April to distributing fentanyl and heroin, along with possession with intent to distribute. The investigation that led to his arrest began on June 13, 2020, when Cary police responding to a suspected overdose at a local hotel found a 35-year-old man dead with 50 bindles of suspected fentanyl and heroin, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina said.
Officials traced the fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, to Cofield, who was 20 at the time. They determined he had traveled south from the small city of Henderson to Cary to sell drugs. An undercover investigation that summer culminated in Cofieldโs arrest. Authorities seized 651 bindles of suspected fentanyl and heroin, and a search of Cofieldโs phone showed photos of firearms and large amounts of cash.
The Department of Justice listed Cofieldโs nicknames as โKeymoneyโ and โBoi Fat.โ
Cary and North Carolina overall have seen increases in opioid incidents this century. Statewide, opioid overdose fatalities rose 800% between 1999 and 2016 โ from around 100 deaths to 1,300. Cary reported 11 on-the-scene opioid overdose deaths in 2017 and the same number in 2020, the year of Cofieldโs arrest. In 2018, Cary launched an Opioid Wastewater Project pilot program that sought to measure opioid consumption not by overdoses but by the concentration of opioids in sewage samples. Ten locations around the town of 170,000 were selected.
Town officials sought a new gauge for opioid use after observing deliveries of Narcan โ a medication that can reverse the impacts of opioid overdoses โ exceeded actual reports of overdoses.
In 2022, Cary reported 118 opioid-related incidents, a higher total than in any of the previous five years. That year, Cary received $928,360 from the North Carolina Department of Justice as part of national settlement agreements with opioid companies.
What you should know on crime victims’ rights
Read the original article on the Raleigh News and Observer website.
The article continues on two more pages – download the article to read.
Stein wants โfentanyl control unitโ of prosecutors and drug agents. How it would work.
Read the original article on the Raleigh News & Observer website.
Welcome to the Sunday edition of our Under the Dome newsletter, which focuses on the governor. Iโm Avi Bajpai, filling in for Dawn Vaughan this week.
The budget proposal Gov. Josh Stein unveiled last month renews his request, now for the third year in a row, for a special unit of state prosecutors and law enforcement agents focused on combating fentanyl trafficking.
Stein first called on the General Assembly to create a fentanyl control unit within the N.C. Department of Justice in February 2023. As head of the department in his role as attorney general at the time, Stein said there was a need for additional prosecutors dedicated to helping local district attorneys go after large-scale trafficking, wiretap, and overdose cases.
His first recommended budget as governor this year includes a funding request for a fentanyl control unit with attorney positions at the DOJ, and law enforcement positions at the State Bureau of Investigation.
Asked about the proposal this week, Stein told reporters that even though initial data appeared to show a downturn in overdose deaths in North Carolina last year, it remains a priority for the state to โdedicate resources to getting this poison out of our communities to the fullest extent possible.โ
Continue reading “Stein wants โfentanyl control unitโ of prosecutors and drug agents. How it would work.”Woman went to hotel to reset her life, family says. NC man now charged in her death.
Read the original article on the Raleigh News & Observer website.
Ashley Lane was happy being a stylist, but she also was a friend and a therapist to people who were struggling, even when her own mental health and substance abuse got the better of her, her family said.
On Monday, a Durham man was accused of selling the fentanyl that caused Lane, 39, to overdose Dec. 28 at The Graduate Hotel in downtown Chapel Hill. She died on Dec. 31 at UNC Hospitals.
Aaron Donald Brooks, 40, is charged with felony death by distribution sale, possession with intent to sell and deliver a controlled substance, sale or delivery of a controlled substance, and possession of a controlled substance, court records show.
He is being held in the Orange County jail under $300,000 secured bail, records show.
Continue reading “Woman went to hotel to reset her life, family says. NC man now charged in her death.”Durham man charged with death by distribution in overdose case. Is that common in NC?
Read the original article on the Raleigh News and Observer website.
More than a year after a Carrboro man fatally overdosed, a Durham man has been accused of selling him the fentanyl that killed him, police said Tuesday.
David Allen Bonita, 34, is charged with death by distribution in the March 29, 2023, death of Arman Guerra Imani, 32, according to a Carrboro Police Department news release. Bonita allegedly sold and delivered fentanyl to Imani, who died after injecting it, Bonitaโs arrest warrant states.
Imani was found unresponsive by his mother in the bathroom of his East Winmore Avenue home shortly before 3 p.m. that day, according to an investigative report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. He was last known to be alive around midnight.
Imaniโs cause of death was an accidental overdose due to โacute ethanol, fentanyl, gabapentin, methadone and mitragynine toxicity,โ the medical examinerโs investigative report states.
Bonitaโs arrest warrant was issued on Oct. 31, but he was not arrested by members of the Carolinas Regional U.S. Marshals Task Force until Tuesday, police said. He is being held in the Orange County Detention Center on $150,000 secured bond, records show.
Fentanyl deaths, death by distribution charges in the Triangle
Bonitaโs arrest mirrors another recent case in Carrboro in which Jeremiah Hargrove, 20, of Selma was charged with death by distribution in the June 27, 2023, death of Serguei Ndinga Momo, 21, The News & Observer previously reported. Momo also overdosed on fentanyl, police said.
The most recent data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services shows that as of July, there were 169 fentanyl-positive deaths throughout the state, a decrease from the 262 fentanyl-positive deaths North Carolina had seen by July 2023. In Orange County, there had been nine fentanyl-positive deaths as of Nov. 25., the department reported. Thatโs a decline from the 26 fentanyl-positive deaths in the county from January to August 2023, data shows.
Death by distribution charges remain relatively uncommon throughout the state and the Triangle, statewide data shows.
Throughout North Carolina, 54 death by distribution charges were filed from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, according to data obtained by The N&O from the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts. During that same period, no new death by distribution charges were filed in Orange or Durham counties, and only one new charge was filed in Wake County.
A born naturalist and animal lover
Imani, a graduate of East Chapel Hill High School who attended UNC-Wilmington, was described by loved ones in his obituary as โa born naturalist.โ The 32-year-old animal lover was passionate about politics and social justice and enjoyed gardening, fishing, cooking and searching for edible plants in the woods, according to his obituary.
โHe wanted to change the paradigm on how Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is treated in the US, allowing for a more open spectrum of treatment options,โ the obituary states.
Above all, Imaniโs legacy is the kindness he showed to those around him, his obituary says.
โThe one enduring trait that people will remember about Arman was his kindness,โ the obituary said. โIn keeping with Armanโs way of life, in lieu of flowers or gifts, we ask that you convey kindness unto others, especially those who are in need.โ
Wake County to take fight against opioid addiction and overdoses to the streets
Read the original article on the News & Observer website (may be behind a pay wall).
Lindsey Humphreys has been recovering from opioid addiction for the last five years, she said.
Sheโs known people in Wake County who have died from opioids because they didnโt have access to naloxone, a life-saving drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose.
โI decided to be part of the solution and just started to distribute this,โ she said. โI have been doing it for the last couple of years in the memory of some of my friends who passed.โ
Humphreys is the executive director of Illuminate NC, an organization that helps distribute naloxone in Wake and Vance counties. Illuminate distributes about 300 naloxone units a month, she said.
Continue reading “Wake County to take fight against opioid addiction and overdoses to the streets”