KINSTON, N.C. (WITN) – A Kinston man is facing charges following a fatal drug overdose investigation.
Around 8:30 a.m. on April 8th, Kinston police say they were called to the 2400 block of Carey Road for a reported fentanyl overdose.
When they arrived, officers found 28-year-old Andrea Grant unresponsive inside the home.
Emergency crews performed life-saving measures on Grant, and she was airlifted to ECU Health, where she was put on life support.
Kinston officers began an investigation into the overdose and identified 31-year-old Michael Oates as the individual responsible for providing Grant with the drugs.
On April 9th, officers pulled Oates over. He was arrested and found with marijuana laced with fentanyl, marijuana and a gun.
Police say Grant was taken off life support on Saturday and died as a result of her injuries.
Detectives got warrants to arrest Oates for death by distribution following her death.
He was additionally charged with trafficking fentanyl, possession of marijuana and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Oates was served the warrants and remains in the Lenoir County Jail without bond.
A woman in Rutherford, North Carolina, has been charged with death by distribution following an investigation after a victim was found dead in her home.
The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said in November 2025, authorities responded to Windy Hill Drive to a report of a cardiac arrest.
Kathryn Diane Morrison
Upon arrival, the victim, Pauline Shumpert Scott, was pronounced dead at the scene, and deputies say an investigation into the incident was requested.
On May 11, 2026, a grand jury indicted Kathryn Diane Morrison on charges of 2nd-degree murder and death by distribution.
Deputies found and arrested Morrison on May 19. She appeared before a judge on May 20 and was given a $500,000 secured bond.
Despite funding increases and legislative support, North Carolina’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner remains backlogged due to a national shortage of pathologists and a surge in subpoenas requiring experts to testify in person.
Getting an autopsy report in North Carolina after someone dies can take months. Despite recent funding for the medical examiner’s office, prosecutors say the backlog of autopsies is slowing down justice.
Simply put, the state’s medical examiner’s office is overloaded. A huge influx in funding helped. But what’s straining the system isn’t the caseload now, it’s the courts.
Dorleen Richardson is waiting for an autopsy on her husband, Antony, who was killed by Johnston County deputies on Jan. 25 following a mental health crisis. Her garage is still riddled with bullet holes, reminding her of the day he died.
“His feet were there, and his body was there,” Richardson said pointing to the floor of her garage.
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RUTHERFORD, N.C. (FOX Carolina) – The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said a woman already in jail on a $1 million bond has now charged with death by distribution.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies were called to a home on Boiling Springs Road in Mooresboro in reference to a possible overdose on Oct. 31, 2025. The victim was provided medical aid and taken to the hospital where they later died.
Officials said a criminal investigation was initiated and on Nov. 19, a search warrant was executed at a home on Country Home Drive.
Amanda Blake Smith(Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office)
During the search, investigators said they found approximately 1,600 pressed fentanyl pills (192 grams), 28 grams of fentanyl powder, and a 9mm handgun.
As a result of the investigation, deputies said Amanda Blake Smith of Forest City was arrested and charged with the following:
(2 counts) Trafficking opium or heroin
Maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/place for a controlled substance
Possession of marijuana (up to ½ ounce)
Possession of drug paraphernalia
Smith was issued a $1,000,000 secured bond on those charges on Nov. 19, officials said.
The sheriff’s office said months later, Smith was additionally charged second-degree murder and death by distribution on Jan. 29, 2026. She will receive a bond for these new charges after she goes before a judge.
A Raleigh mom is raising awareness about drug overdose risks by gifting skateboards to children across the Triangle area. Her mission not only remembers her son but also educates families on the dangers of substance abuse.
Susan Plattner’s son, Caleb Mehlman, spent most of his free time at Marsh Creek Skatepark in Raleigh. She said skateboarding was second nature for her son.
“At the age of three, I had a scooter, and he figured out how to push the handle down and turn it into a skateboard, and that was it,” Plattner said. “He was skating passionately ever since then.”
North and South Carolina attorneys general launch bipartisan effort to tackle fentanyl trafficking and money laundering in Charlotte.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced a bipartisan initiative Monday targeting Chinese tech giant WeChat for allegedly facilitating money laundering connected to fentanyl trafficking in the United States.
“WeChat is essentially helping to bankroll the fentanyl epidemic. This must stop,” Jackson said during the announcement.
The effort, joined by five other state attorneys general, including South Carolina’s Alan Wilson, accuses WeChat of inadequate measures to combat illegal financial transactions that support drug trafficking.
“Evidence strongly suggests that WeChat has allowed itself to become an enormous digital pipeline for money laundering that fuels the fentanyl trade,” Jackson said.
The coalition has issued a demand letter giving the company 30 days to detail specific actions it’s taking to address what officials describe as rampant money laundering on the platform.
“We need answers. We need them now,” Wilson said.
“If they don’t comply with our request, we believe that we have a range of options for escalation,” Jackson said. “For a number of reasons, we’re choosing not to detail what those options are, but we strongly encourage them to respond.”
The initiative aims to disrupt the financial networks supporting fentanyl distribution, which officials believe will help reduce the flow of the deadly drug into American communities, including Charlotte, with CMPD Lt. Robert Sprague, who works in investigations, also present for the press briefing in support.
“While CMPD’s Vice unit and others within our organization do an excellent job investigating and seizing these operations, this type of activity occurs across the country and internationally,” Lt. Sprague said, “often passing through surrounding jurisdictions before ultimately reaching Charlotte.”
Sophia Walsh
Barbara Walsh, representing the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, is among the hundreds of thousands of people estimated to be impacted by the fentanyl crisis in the United States. She says she lost her daughter, Sophia, an Appalachian State University graduate, in 2021 after Sophia drank from a water bottle laced with fentanyl.
“You don’t really recover from this, as a family,” Walsh said. “Siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, husbands, wives. It is forever, and if we could stop one person from dying, which means one family won’t be traumatized and deal with this for the rest of their life.”
She expressed hope that the attorneys general’s efforts would prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies.
“If we can disrupt the money laundering, you can disrupt the distribution of deadly fentanyl in this state,” Walsh said.
This announcement comes on the heels of North Carolina Governor Josh Stein’s recent visit to Charlotte, where he pushed for funding for a fentanyl control unit. During a news conference, Stein was joined by CMPD officials and individuals impacted by the fentanyl crisis, including Debbie Dalton. Dalton, who lost her son Hunter to fentanyl in 2016, shared her heartbreaking story, emphasizing the deadly and unpredictable nature of the drug.
“It took hardly a minute for my 6’3″, very healthy son to have a heart attack,” Dalton said. “That’s the thing with fentanyl. You don’t see it coming, but it’s coming. It’s relentless, and it’s killing our young people, and nobody is safe from it.”
The proposed fentanyl control unit, which Stein has advocated for since his tenure as attorney general in 2023, would include drug agents and prosecutors dedicated to investigating drug rings statewide and stopping the flow of narcotics into North Carolina communities. Despite Stein’s persistent efforts, the unit has not been included in the final state budget, including this year’s Senate budget proposal.
Stein urged the legislature to consider the urgency of the situation, noting that the House is currently deliberating its budget. He highlighted the need for additional resources, stating that the proposed unit would cost a couple of million dollars annually, a sum he believes is within the General Assembly’s capacity. While the Senate’s budget plan includes funding for 10 additional prosecutors and five legal assistants for Mecklenburg County, marking the first significant staffing increase for the DA’s office in nearly 15 years, Stein stressed the need for more focused efforts on fentanyl.
At the recent meeting, CMPD officials reported receiving 600 overdose calls so far in 2025, an 11% increase from the same period in 2024. This statistic underscores the growing urgency to address the fentanyl crisis and the importance of the upcoming bipartisan effort announced by Attorneys General Jackson and Wilson.
CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT)- The Carteret County Sheriff’s Office in collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office (District 4) continue to try to stay ahead of the fentanyl crisis and enforce the law to save lives.
Earlier this week the offices helped convict Hugh Crandall Willis Jr. of Gloucester, N.C. with Death by Distribution of Fentanyl, Sale and Delivery of Fentanyl and Felonious Possession of Fentanyl. A jury found him guilty of his role in the death of his girlfriend, Bethany JoAlison Styron.
According to Sheriff Asa Buck III, Carteret County has had three overdose deaths this year with more than 150 overdose cases in the past five years. However, he also says the county has seen a significant drop over that time period.
“Three is still too many,” Buck said. “One is too many, but it’s nowhere near the numbers of what we were seeing back in 2020, 20, 21, 22, and then in 23 and 24, the numbers began to drop.”
Buck says his office and the District Attorney’s are continuing to be proactive to the issue. The county has convicted more than 10 people with death by distribution and charged more than 30 since the General Assembly passed the statute in 2019.
“We investigate every drug overdose death just like a homicide and we have been for many years,” Buck said.
The sheriff, district attorney and others from the district attorney’s office were recently given the “Save Lives Together” award for their work in holding fentanyl traffickers accountable.
“When people are doing things and it’s causing people to die, that’s not something that you just sit back and say, well, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Buck said. “You make that a priority and you certainly try to do the very best you can to investigate those criminal offenses and hold people accountable when and where you can through the court system.”
PASQUOTANK, N.C. (WAVY) — A man in North Carolina was charged in the death of a woman after she died from fentanyl ingestion.
On July 2, 2024, around 4 p.m., deputies with the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office and EMS responded to the 700 block of Egan Lane in Elizabeth City. Crews arrived and attempted life-saving measures on an unconscious and unresponsive woman, but were unsuccessful.
29-year-old Jessica Modlin was pronounced dead at the scene. It was determined that fentanyl was the cause of death.
On Jan. 30, 2025, investigators with the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office arrested and charged Dontae Williams with death by distribution.
Dontae Williams is currently in the custody of Albemarle District Jail under a $1 million secure bond.
Published: Sep. 20, 2024 at 11:41 AM EDT|Updated: Sep. 20, 2024 at 3:24 PM EDT
EDENTON, N.C. (WITN) – Two people have been indicted for three overdose deaths that happened in one Eastern Carolina County.
The SBI announced this morning the arrests of Steven Patrick, Jr. and Ja’Nyryah White, both of Edenton.
The three deaths happened last December, along with several other non-fatal ODs, within 15 days of each other.
The victims were 66-year-old Janice Chilcutt, 61-year-old Ronald Adderly, and 24-year-old April Tapia.
Chilcutt and Adderly died in Edenton, while Tapia’s death was in the county.
A Chowan County grand jury indicted Patrick on two counts of death by distribution for the Edenton deaths, while White was charged with one count of death by distribution for the Chowan County death.
The SBI was brought in to investigate the deaths at the request of the Edenton Police Department and the Chowan County Sheriff’s Office.
Patrick was given a $500,000 secured bond, and White’s bond was $250,000 secured. Both suspects remain in jail.
