Much more will be reported on this case by the time it’s all over with. The story was picked up by The Associated Press and ran all over the world. Read our initial report. And the follow up. The NEW YORK DAILY NEWS report. The weapons and combat equipment were sold online to China, but [...]

Cops think they’ve solved an ear-biting cold case with the arrest of a Hubert man accused in another more recent chopping case. Read the news. The police press release. The victim’s ear:

Daily News content editor Amanda Hickey sent me this link to share on the blog. This 17-year-old Hendersonville girl was charged with leaving her baby in the trash. We had a similar case here a few years ago. Looking for more information, I searched the web using the words “”baby” and “trash.” It is depressing [...]

A Jacksonville man – who hasn’t lived here in a while because he’s been on the lam – is accused of killing a Virginia man by running him off the interstate in a road rage incident. Read the news. Sessoms and his girlfriend (accussed of hiding pills in her bra): The real question authorities should [...]

A lot, I mean a lot, has happened in the last several days. Here is a run down of several loose ends and updates to stories and cases I have covered in the newspaper or on the blog: - A Sampson County man who killed his family will spend the rest of his life in prison now [...]

- One of the longest criminal trials in Wake County history is coming to a close. In a case I mentioned on the blog from time to time since 2008, Cary resident Brad Cooper is accused of killing his wife he said went out for a jog. Read the updated news here. – I have it [...]

An Army sergeant who killed a pregnant college and left her body in a motel room bathtub has pleaded guilty. Read the details here. Pantino:                                                     Touma:                    This was one of several cases of a military woman being killed by a military man she was involved with in 2008. The stories captured national attention and made people wonder what [...]

N.C. State Sen. Charlie Albertson is going out with a bang. The long-time law-maker – who announced last month he wasn’t running again - is crooning about Willie Nelson’s band being busted for weed and moonshine before a concert, that didn’t happen, in Kenansville a few weeks back. Check it out: I wonder whether Dewey Hudson [...]

The Associated Press is reporting that Ric Flair’s new wife has been charged with assaulting the pro-wrestler in their Charlotte home. Flair, the 60-year-old platinum blond grappler nicknamed “The Nature Boy,” told police that his wife attacked him after they went out for dinner. He had minor injuries, but refused treatment from paramedics. Jacqueline Beems, 41, was charged with simple assault. On [...]

D.A. Dewey Hudson was a more than a little disappointed the Willie Nelson concert was cancelled. Read the news. There to enjoy the show, Hudson found out like everyone else that A.L.E. agents from Wilmington crashed the party. Guess the boys from the Port City didn’t like Willie’s band toking up before the show. As if there [...]

Former Camp Lejeune Marine Cody Brittingham threatened the president. No “allegedly” needed. He pleaded guilty in August. I dropped the ball and lost track of the case in the federal court system (i.e. I forgot). Sorry. But The New York Times picked up my slack and ran a really good article about early threats to [...]

If this guy is found guilty, I volunteer to stick the needle in his arm. Mario McNeill has been charged with murder in the death of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis. Read The Sanford Herald’s report here. McNeill, who was already charged with kidnapping the girl, asphyxiated her before dumping her body in a wooded area near [...]

After 10 years of hanging out in front of a Bell Fork Road garage, the Muffle Man has been kidnapped. Muffler Man was last seen in sunglasses and a ski cap. Read Molly K. DeWitt’s news article. Some might say he wondered off on his own, that he lived life on the edge and shouldn’t [...]

My good friends at N.C. Wanted have an excellent article online about North Carolina fugitives believed to be hiding in Mexico. The article highlights the Cesar Laurean case. Read it here. They have some excellent video too. From the N.C. Wanted Web site: “People flee every single day to Mexico to avoid prosecution. That’s not [...]

It has been a busy day for me. I haven’t had a lot of time to twitter or blog. And it is now the weekend and I want to spend time with my family so I have tossed all of this together. First, Daily News Content Editor Amanda Hickey has come up with something really [...]

A woman was sexually assaulted and killed just down the road from where I used to live in Hampstead, according to several media outlets in Wilmington. I know the Hampstead area, it is quiet and peaceful; but has a few hotspots of drug activity. Beverly Ennis Moore, 52, was found dead in her bathroom Sunday night at 2634 Sloop [...]

Y’all know I love cold cases. Here’s one that WNCT featured recently. It looks pretty solvable to me if the right person comes forward. Like I’ve said before, homicides don’t happen in a vacuum. In most cases there is someone who knows something. Video of WNCT’s Parul Joshi interviewing the victim’s family. The complete story is [...]

The Associated Press reports that the FBI seized five newspapers reporting on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center from a North Carolina resident recently charged with plotting international terrorism. See? That’s what you can do with newspapers that you can’t do with the Web. You can tack them up in your [...]

Be extra careful where you get your drugs from in Iredell County. During a recent drug buy, the buyer and the seller were both undercover. The buyers - Statesville city cops - hooked up the seller – an Iredell deputy sheriff – before it all got straitened out.   I know a couple of undercover cops and [...]

Here’s a good example of interstate law enforcement cooperation: Police in Kentucky have arrested a North Carolina man on charges he dumped a body in West Virginia. Straight from Carteret County Sheriff’s Department press release: Police Officers in Bardstown, Kentucky arrested 39-year-old Erick Deickman on Wednesday afternoon in connection with the death of Andrew Mulvany [...]

A former Camp Lejeune Marine accused of beating his wife near to death with a hammer in December was let go by the Corps two months ago. Daily News reporter Amanda Hickey dug that little fact up while she was gathering news for a story we worked on together about Gould’s indictment earlier in the week. [...]

A Pender County Sheriff’s deputy took a demotion after calling in help in an animal case. He had also tried to buy one of the horses he later had seized. Read the story here. WECT-TV Now as if all that wasn’t enough to complicate this story, I spoke to the N.C. Dept. of Agriculture on [...]

Check out this update on the school psychologist accused of having photos of nude boys. A Google Profile page lists his interests as a nudist. I don’t have a problem with nudists. But when children are involved it gets weird. WITN’s Ken Heineck spoke to an adopted son of the accused. The 18-year-old said nothing [...]

If you are going to allegedly take photos of nude boys, then you should buy a digital camera (or learn how to develop film in your basement like other creepy people). Daily News Carteret County reporter Jannette Pippin has an article online about a school psychologist busted with child porn while trying to get it [...]

Read this news article about a Camp Lejeune Marine accused of meeting with a 12-year-old girl and her YOUNGER sister. LadyofNC posted this comment on the news story: You can not blame the Marine in this.. Girls thse days look and act older than they are. I know because I have a teenager that looks [...]

The body of a teenage girl has been discovered on a set of railroad tracks in Jones County. Read the story here. – Photo from WITN.com.

A body found in a trash can in West Virginia on Monday has been traced back to a Carteret County man because of his pacemaker. Read news here.

Read the breaking news here. Molly did a good job of cobbling the story together from several sources. Our city editor heard about this earlier today, but some of the details were sketchy. We wanted to make sure we had it right before we ran with the story. As a side note, I grew up [...]

Statement from the family of Ryan Dawson, a Lenoir County Sheriff’s Deputy shot this week in the line of duty. He has had two surgeries to remove bullet fragments from his neck. “Our family wishes to express our sincere appreciation for the outpouring of love and concern for Ryan. We are so grateful to Lenoir County [...]

Allen Pearson, a detective with the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Department, has been killed and another detective injured in a shootout with a suspect – who was also killed – this morning. The suspect is said to have killed a woman in New Bern before the deadly exchange. Read news here. I plan to talk with [...]

A Belgrade man who coached football and taught at Jones Senior High was charged by the N.C. SBI with forcing two female students to perform oral sex.  Read news here. Investigators believe there might even be more alleged victims. What gets me is the former principal that didn’t turn this guy in two years ago. Basically [...]

Read this news report about a North Carolina prosecutor and a state senator pushing to see the law changed to make the death of an unborn child a seperate crime when the mother is killed or injured. Some say the law would go too far; some say the law falls short. You can also read [...]

He may not ever be a menace to society again, but gang-banger Brandon Rice will be a burden to the state the rest of his life. Read news here. Rice used a potato as a silencer when he shot a 63-year-old cabbie in the head and stole his money. He had a couple of friends [...]

Raleigh police say they have arrested a man responsible for two murders in the late 1990s. Read the whole story at NC Wanted. Comments to this blog are unmoderated. Any questionable comments should be reported to localdesk@freedomenc.com or the newsroom at 910-219-8451. Those comments deemed irrelevant or inappropriate may be deleted.

Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc was shot in the head, according to autopsy reselts released today. Read the article and view the autopsy here. Comments to this blog are unmoderated. Any questionable comments should be reported to localdesk@freedomenc.com or the newsroom at 910-219-8451. Those comments deemed irrelevant or inappropriate may be deleted.

Almost one year exactly from when Maria Lauterbach’s body was found and authorities announced her assailant had fled to Mexico, history is repeating itself just north of here. The missing Sampson County woman I told you about Friday is dead. Authorities found her body in a wooded area not far from her home this weekend, [...]

D.A. Dewey Hudson is being sized up by newly elected Sen. Kay Hagan for a possible presidential appointment to U.S. Attorney for the state’s Eastern District. It’s an honor to even be considered. There are only 93 U.S. Attorneys in the in the entire country. Read the news here. Hudson arriving at 103 Meadow Trail exactly [...]

Sound familiar? The Sampson County Sheriff’s Department is searching for a missing woman and her son. The woman’s estranged husband is a suspect in her disappearance. Problem is, authorities think he has fled to Mexico, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to me on the condition I not reveal his name. Investigators are hoping [...]

WITN’s New Bern Bureau Chief Ken Heineck scored a big story Thursday by interviewing a man accused of animal cruelty earlier this week. Read about it here. And watch the video. Since the alleged crimes happened outside my coverage area, I could just watch and enjoy. I was fascinated with Wednesday’s news that this guy was accused of having a dog’s head [...]

Johnnie Lee Gurley is getting out of prison after 36 years. He went to the big house for kidnapping a woman and raping and terrorizing her for almost five hours. It took a jury only 35 minutes to give Gurley life in prison. I wonder whether the Parole Commission even thought about it that long before setting him [...]

District Attorney Dewey Hudson is unapologetic that his office came up with the same outcome in a triple murder case that was offered to him by a defense attorney years ago. Read the article here. No doubt the libertarians-that-be will use this article to springboard into another anti-capital punishment tirade, but I think the death [...]

A New Bern man pleaded guilty today to the 2006 shooting death of a Maysville man after a high school basketball game in Jones County. Read article here. The defendant flanked by his lawyers.

I get press releases from all over the place all the time. Most of them end up being for outside our coverage area, but this one was too good to ignore. I am cutting and pasting the entire press release from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office. Here: NEW BERN – United States Attorney George E.B. [...]

Found this on WITN while surfing the Web: A Nash County fugitive will be profiled on Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted” tonight. James Ricky Perry is wanted for conspiracy to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and possession with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. He has been on the lam for three years. [...]

A Camp Lejeune Marine charged with child abuse yesterday after his stepson died will be charged with murder now that authorities have autopsy results, Lenoir County Sheriff’s detectives say. The original story here.

The family of a UNCW student shot dead by authorities in 2006 has sued the college. The News&Observer broke the lawsuit story today. This ongoing story changed really fast in December 2006 from a kid who got rolled for some PS3s the day the game system went on sale to a suspect in the robbery being shot [...]

Eight men in North Carolina, including two area Marines, have been arrested after a year-long Internet child sex sting. An article is about the operation is Online now. Pender County Sheriff Carson Smith talks to the media Thursday about the arrests. He is flanked by Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Lawson and NCIS Special Agent Wayne Mixon. Lawson was [...]

I just spoke with Dick McNeil who was very happy to say his client has been found not guilty of murder. A FreedomENC photo of Jones and McNeil outside Craven County Courthouse. The jury took a little less than an hour to come back to say Jones was not guilty of two counts of murder in the deaths [...]

While I was surfing WRAL.com today, I came across this article. I remember this case from reading the local newspaper while going to college and working as a night watchman in Sanford. The carrier would deliver the paper at about 4 a.m. every morning to the faucet manufacturing plant I was working at. I looked [...]

My good friend, Dr. Charles Garrett testified during the Vaughn Jones trial today. Read the story here. Defense attorney Dick McNeil has seen two hung juries in this case. State law says the prosecution could go on with retrial after retrial until a jury reaches an unanimous decision. But I don’t know how many times Jones [...]