Two members of Congress and the mother of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach will hold a bipartisan press conference Thursday to discuss sexual assault in the military. Representatives Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Jane Harman, D-Cal., will discuss legislation that they have co-authored to address the troubling problem of sexual assault in the military. Congresswoman Harman and [...]

Fayetteville police arrested a Fort Bragg soldier in the death of Army Spc. Megan Touma who was found dead in a motel room several weeks ago. Edgar Patino Lopez, of Lairgate Lane in Hope Mills, has been charged with first-degree murder. Obviously this is outside my coverage area, but since y’all were talking about it [...]

- The murder trial of a man accused with helping the alleged triggerman in a 2007 homicide opened this morning. Read about it here. The defendant was offered a plea to accessory after the fact and refused it, according to an affidavit in the court file. He is now being tried with murder. Everyone deserves [...]

Child sex offenders will now go away for at least 25 years in N.C. Gov. Mike Easley signed Jessica’s Law on Monday. The new law requires judges to sentence child sex offenders to a minimum 25 years in prison. Once released, they will be monitored by a satellite for life. The law is named after [...]

The Daily News content editor / military reporter Jennifer Hlad is on the USS Iwo Jima right now with the 26th MEU. You can read all about her trip here. Back in ’92, I was stuck in the Aegean Sea for six months on the USS JFK. We made bilge wine out of potatoes. I [...]

A while back I got some good response and thought provoking answers out of y’all when I asked whether you would turn your spouse over to the authorities if they had been accused of a heinous crime. Let’s try again. The Daily News ran an article Sunday about a convicted murderer up for parole. In [...]

Nancy Cooper’s family will keep her two children until October. The Associated Press reports that the two young daughters of a murdered Cary woman will remain with their maternal gradparents, but will visit their father at least twice in Cary before mid-October. The Cooper family. Photo courtesy of Cary Police Department. A judge approved a [...]

Daily News photographer John Althouse busted this guy violating child labor laws by bringing his daughter to work and forcing her to clean up his desk. Names were not released.

Both WITN and WNCT ran stories on the Joel Petteway Jr. case Thursday. Both have good video Online with one of Petteway’s victims speaking out. WITN is here. WNCT here. As I reported earlier, Petteway has been cited with a probation violation and is due in court Aug. 25. Not previously reported by me – [...]

A Fort Bragg soldier authorities say was killed by her estranged Camp Lejeune Marine husband will be buried Tuesday in her home state of Iowa. Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc, 24, was killed July 10 in her Fayetteville apartment and her body was disposed of in Onslow County. Fayetteville police charged Marine Cpl. John Wimunc [...]

The slow, painful unraveling of North Topsail Beach continues. Daily News Topsail area reporter Suzie Ulbrich has been following this story and has filed two articles about it so far. The town manager fired for trying to do the right thing. The town’s capital project coordinator and assistant finance officer quits in support of the [...]

From Mike: Lindell, I wanted to pass along this information to the bloggers at Off the Cuff. I had a pleasant conversation today with Lisa Williams, Mike Kozak’s sister. She informs me that Blackie, Mike’s dog is adjusting nicely in her home and has become a very good house dog. There are still medical issues [...]

This is a little out of my coverage area, but when I saw it on the AP wire, I thought y’all would want to read it. —————————————————————————  ALBEMARLE, N.C. (AP) – Authorites in Stanly County say a grandmother with five dead spouses has been formally indicted for trying to hire a hit man to kill [...]

It is obvious that the blog has undergone a change. It now mirrors the newspaper’s Web site. The new format actually has several advantages. The newspaper’s search window will allow you to look up any story in the paper’s Online archive straight from the blog. The links bar at the top is convenient too. The unobtrusive ads along [...]

A probation violation hearing has been scheduled for a convicted sex offender that tested positive for cocaine metabolites in his blood after being charged last year with a DWI. One of the conditions of the probation was that he not use illegal drugs. The hearing for Joel Chandler Petteway Jr. is set for Aug. 25, according to [...]

N.C. Lt. Gov. Bev Purdue was in Jacksonville today for the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the new hospital pavilion. Here she is with one of her state police bodyguards: I asked Don Bryan to snap me a photo of her and her state police bodyguard. And here it is. Not really a point to it, but [...]

WITN is reporting that a Wayne County man has been arrested for buring a cross in a neighbor’s yard. Dixon Steward, 28, of Dudley, was charged by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department with ethnic intimidation. If Steward is guilty, his actions are intolerable. No one has the right to go onto another person’s property and do anything [...]

I wrote an article about a registered sex offender and his probation situation that appeared in today’s newspaper. Read it here. After the UNC student body president Eve Carson homicide, which authorities say was committed by two men on probation that had not seen their probation officers in several months, critics are calling for a [...]

The News & Observer reported that a Wake County Superior Court Judge ordered search warrants in the Nancy Cooper case be sealed. The judge said that releasing information contained in the warrants could jeopardize the prospects for a fair trial. Cary police have not named a suspect in Cooper’s death or said how she died. [...]

A memorial for Holley Wimunc was held in Sneads Ferry on Monday night. Not a lot of people there, but about what I expected since Holley didn’t live or work in the area. The article is here. The guest sign-in table: The small but meaningful crowd: The gathering storm outside: Photographer extraordinaire John Althouse took [...]

I have spoken to family members of the victim and I have spoken to law enforcement about the case recently. I have not written about the case for the newspaper yet. I am providing some links to previous Daily News articles about the homicide. Here is a brief synopsis compiled from a couple of Daily [...]

Three lessons in how to avoid going to jail. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, of course. Lesson 1: Don’t ask a deputy for a ride with stolen goods in your pocket and don’t let him answer a stolen cell phone: A Camp Lejeune Marine that asked an Onslow [...]

I wrote an article earlier in the week about how criminals – or I should say alleged criminals – set fires to destroy evidence, but it usually backfires on them. Read it here. Today, I was skimming through some old crime scene photos of mine and I came across this August 2007 picture: This car was torched to [...]

What do we tell our children when the people we normally tell them to look up to – nurses and teachers – are arrested on drug charges? Suzie has an article about an Onslow Memorial Hospital nurse arrested and charged with stealing pills. WITN also has a good story featuring an Onslow County Sheriff’s captain [...]

Please comment on the Cooper case here until I post an update. Nancy Cooper’s body was found not far from her Lochmere subdivision home in mid-July after being missing for four days. Cary police obtained a search warrant to collect DNA from her husband, Brad Cooper, who works at Research Triangle Park. The couple’s two [...]

Police have arrested the man that has been their prime suspect since Brad Palmer was found shot to death March 1. Amanda’s excellent article about it is here. I have figured from the beginning that their guy had help – at least after the fact – and the police alluded to that today. Crime Stoppers [...]

In the Alden article that appeared in today’s newspaper, I assigned masculine pronouns to Sheriff’s Sgt. Shannon Albright. Sgt. Albright is a woman and I am an idiot. I wanted to apologize to her in public since I got it wrong in public. The upside to this – Albright must be one hell of a [...]

I am off today ensuring Freedom doesn’t go bankrupt paying my overtime. Meanwhile, Amanda has written an article about a sad hit and run death that happened here over night. Read it here. The police have an announcement to make this afternoon about an arrest in a homicide that happened earlier this year. Amanda will [...]

Please comment on the Wimunc case here until I post an update. I have received comments that the older threads are too long. Fort Bragg soldier 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc disappeared in mid-July and was reported missing when her Fayetteville apartment was torched. Just days later a burned and dismembered body later identified as Wimunc [...]

Please comment on the Lauterbach case here until I post an update. I have received comments that the older threads are too long. Pregnant Camp Lejeune Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach disappeared in mid-December. In January, authorities found the charred remains of Lauterbach and her unborn child in the Half Moon community backyard of a [...]

The Daily News has an article Online about Kyle Alden’s arrest for allegedly assaulting his wife in April. Mike and I returned to where the body of Holley Wimunc was disposed. Mike writes about it: “The walk into the woods from Old Folkstone Road to the area in which Holley Wimunc’s charred remains were found [...]

BluelineRadio has some interesting information about the woman who went missing in Cary. They also talk about a couple of missing person cases in Wilmington. I would like to say something about the deputy saying “cool” on the 911 recordings in response to the dispatcher telling him a body has been discovered in Sneads Ferry. [...]

I have been a little busy today and have not had a chance to update. Sorry. I’m sure y’all know a lot about the Wimunc case so far. A lot of information is out there. You can listen to the 911 calls about the discovery of the body here. The forestry official mentions a knives [...]

The newspaper has printed the article Molly and I wrote about deputy pay. It is here. I know the body in the woods situation is going to grab the most attention, but this is an important issue also. Taking a look at the pay scale for the Sheriff’s Department, most of the deputies and ranking personnel [...]

I have been out at the crime scene all evening (well, as close as authorities would let me get). The story is here. NCIS was on the scene and I am told a seabag was found with the body. Here are some photos: Body is about a mile down this dirt road: NCIS arrive: Sheriff [...]

As all of you know by now, the missing Fort Bragg soldier is married to a Camp Lejeune Marine. I wrote an article about it for tomorrow’s print edition. It is here. We will have to see how this story develops. The reporters at The Fayetteville Observer are getting taste for what The Daily News [...]

(Been a while, I know – I have been chained to my desk) – Police captured the Taco Bell shooter. – The deputy pay story Molly and I have been working on will run either Sunday or Monday. – Mr. Meadows called me today to say he was not guilty of the charges he is accused of [...]

Read this article. I’m not sure what to say about this one. Mike McHugh said, “You’d think by now all the stupid or evil people would be dead or locked up, but I guess not.” ——- Update: Several people on the news site and AnnDaniel here have asked why the bond was so low for [...]

There was a shooting at a Taco Bell here in town last week. The cops said today that they know who the suspect is. Read the updated story here. The wrinkle – that suspect is a juvenile. As a juvenile, N.C. state law says the suspect cannot be identified. So police are looking for him, [...]

I have been busy. For me there are two kinds of busy. There is the breaking news day like a couple of weeks ago on a Wednesday when I wrote about a stabbing, a homicide and a vehicular manslaughter. Then there are days like the last couple when nothing breaking happens and I have time [...]

Mike McHugh gave me this to post:     I spoke with Lisa Williams this morning for about five minutes informing her that several people from Off the Cuff had collected money for the family.   To date, $217 has been collected. When Lisa was informed of this generosity, she became overwhelmed and started to cry. [...]

I commented on one of my recent posts that I was trying to build an information network of people that might be in a position to know things but not in a position to get what they know out to the people. Two very important people stepped up. I’ll call them Retail and Radio-10. Retail knows [...]

Just to be thorough: Dustin Newcome has been convicted of possession of stolen goods, drug possession, damage to property, larceny, driving while impaired, driving with a revoked license, and resisting a police officer. Jason Blackmon has been convicted of simple assault on a handicapped person, simple assault, drug possession, and operating a vehicle with no [...]

JPD arrested three people last night and charged them in Kozak’s homicide. The story is here. I have a very fuzzy picture of one of them being detained by the cops on N.C. 24 last night. Things happened really fast and by the time I got back down the highway to U-turn and go back [...]

Some free advice (because we haven’t figured out how to charge you for reading the Internet yet): 1) Don’t leave your vehicle unattended at a bank. I met up with a member of the local bar for lunch. In the process, my vehicle got left at a bank on Western. In hindsight, I should have parked [...]