An ICE agent questions a U.S. citizen on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Salisbury, N.C.
Video screenshot
Cellphone video circulating online shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents telling two men in Salisbury to stop recording them at a traffic stop on Monday, as well as the fracas that followed.
Charlotte ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams confirmed it was ICE agents who were seen in the video.
“Do me a favor and turn off your video. You’re being detained right now, so you’re not free to record,” one agent told the men, whom advocacy group Siembra NC identified as Edwin Godinez and Yair Alexander Napoles.
When Godinez and Napoles responded that they were not being detained, the agent reached through the car’s driver-side window and tried to grab Napoles’ cellphone, then grabbed him by his hoodie and yanked him. Then, agents opened the car door and tussled with him inside the vehicle.
“Get off the phone!” the agent who told them to stop recording said before he started yelling more commands.
A different agent also reached into the car and yanked Godinez by his coat before pointing his finger in his face and telling him to put his hands on the dashboard.
Agents eventually removed the two from the car. They were not charged, Siembra spokesperson Marley Monacello said.
Both are United States citizens and step-brothers, according to Siembra, and were picking up a work truck left behind after two people in their family’s business — Adelso Perez Sales and Alejandro Domingo Ambrosio Bamaca — were arrested by ICE.
“I can record for my safety, right?” Godinez asked in the video, before the struggle.
“Sure,” an agent answered before pulling his face mask up.
The agent then asked him how he got “in the United States.”
The Charlotte Observer asked ICE for more information about the incident and whether agents in the video violated any policies. The First Amendment allows Americans the right to record or photograph police.
“Federal agents should not be targeting us for the color of our skin,” Napoles said in a statement. “They kept saying, ‘You’re not a citizen, you’re not a citizen’ to me, even when I told them I was, just because of how I look.”
Godinez added in his own statement that agents are arresting “hard-working people, not hardened criminals,” and should “stop abusing our community.”
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM.
Ryan Oehrli writes about criminal justice for The Charlotte Observer. His reporting has delved into police misconduct, jail and prison deaths, the state’s pardon system and more. He was also part of a team of Pulitzer finalists who covered Hurricane Helene. A North Carolina native, he grew up in Beaufort County.
In a video statement on Sept. 17, 2025, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden said he has been betrayed by former staffers who came out and criticized him to reporters.
McFadden, a Democrat who has been sheriff since 2018, faces the prospect of being removed from office after more than a year of public controversies.
In a superior court petition filed Monday, four former sheriff’s office employees and a state lawmaker laid out a long series of allegations. Among their claims: McFadden had deputies drive people to bars and strip clubs, ordered other sheriff’s office staff to work on his campaign website and threatened state Rep. Carla Cunningham in a phone call.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt; you live in my county,” the petition alleges the sheriff told Cunningham when trying to convince her to vote a certain way on an immigration- and law enforcement-related bill.
Merriweather, also a Democrat, said in a news release that he learned of the petition on Sunday evening.
“District Attorneys have only rarely granted the approval of such a petition, with the understanding that election of a community’s official is a binding choice of the public, which should only be superseded under the most grave circumstances,” he said in that release.
State law requires that a district attorney or county attorney approve a removal petition before it can move forward.
In his letter to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, Merriweather noted that McFadden is not just accused of misconduct, but crimes in some instances.
McFadden did not respond to phone calls and messages seeking comment on Monday. Spokesperson Sarah Mastouri said he was aware of the petition, but had no comment.
“The request has been assigned to the SBI’s Professional Standards unit for investigation,” SBI spokesperson Chad Flowers confirmed in an email. “The SBI will not comment further on the status of the investigation.”
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published January 5, 2026 at 4:48 PM.
Ryan Oehrli writes about criminal justice for The Charlotte Observer. His reporting has delved into police misconduct, jail and prison deaths, the state’s pardon system and more. He was also part of a team of Pulitzer finalists who covered Hurricane Helene. A North Carolina native, he grew up in Beaufort County.
Zoe Welsh, a science teacher at Raleigh’s Ravenscroft School, was killed in her home Saturday.
The fence surrounding 819 Clay Street was shut Sunday afternoon, with a wooden board covering one of the home’s two front windows. Police had cleared from the area, and people were enjoying a sunny day across the road in Fred Fletcher Park.
A red SUV was parked in the driveway. It displayed a breast cancer awareness logo on its license plate and a bumper sticker from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Early Saturday morning, Raleigh police had responded to a report of a burglary in progress at this house. The burglar began to attack the victim, school teacher Zoe Welsh, while Welsh was still speaking to the police, the police say.
“The complainant was screaming, but I am silent now,” a Raleigh police dispatcher said at 6:34 a.m. Saturday, according to a call simulcast database. Six minutes later, an officer at the scene reported, “I have a female down. She’s got a severe hemorrhage to the left side of her head.”
Welsh was taken to a local hospital, where she died. Officers searched the neighborhood and arrested Ryan Camacho, 36, who was charged Saturday with murder and felony burglary.
Public records show Camacho has a criminal record dating back to 2005, including a 2019 conviction for discharging a firearm into an occupied Wake County property, for which he was incarcerated. More recently, he was convicted of seven misdemeanors in November 2024 in Durham County, with one of the charges being breaking and entering.
‘You could tell she really cared for her students’
With questions on this apparent homicide still unanswered, Welsh’s friends and former students on Sunday shared fond memories of a beloved educator.
“A lot of conversations with friends today, of just how genuinely nice she was,” said Lisa Ginger of Raleigh, who knew Welsh since they attended Daniels Middle School (now Oberlin Magnet Middle School).
Ginger recalled Zoe’s two siblings, including how her late older brother, Reed Mullin, was the drummer for the Grammy Award-nominated metal band Corrosion of Conformity. “Raleigh’s a big city now,” Ginger said in a phone call. “But when you grow up here, and you have ties to the area, you tend to cling to those from here.”
A mother of two in her late 50s, Welsh taught science at Leesville Road High School in the Wake County Public Schools System before taking a position at the private Ravenscroft School in North Raleigh.
“She wanted to make biology a fun and interesting topic for all students,” wrote Lauren Knight, who graduated from Ravenscroft in 2010, in a private Reddit message to The News & Observer. “I particularly remember and loved the photosynthesis song! She spent extra time helping me grasp concepts and you could tell she really cared for her students.”
Ravenscroft spokesperson Elizabeth McKinnon said the school will offer students, instructors and staff grief counseling and other support resources as classes resume Monday after winter break.
“The Ravenscroft community is devastated by the loss of our beloved colleague and friend Zoe Welsh,” the school wrote in a statement. “Zoe has been a cornerstone of our Upper School Science Department and the Ravenscroft community since 2006. She previously served as the science department chair.”
Brian Gordon is the Business & Technology reporter for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. He writes about jobs, startups and big tech developments unique to the North Carolina Triangle. Brian previously worked as a senior statewide reporter for the USA Today Network. Please contact him via email, phone, or Signal at 919-861-1238.
The city of Raleigh is warning drivers about fake QR codes that have been attached to downtown parking meters. They may be part of a wider scam.
News & Observer file photo
The City of Raleigh has identified a number of fake QR codes posted on downtown street parking meters, warning that these unauthorized links may be part of a wider scam.
On Dec. 31, the city released images of the suspect square codes with their accompanying text reading “Scan Here To Pay For Parking.” Officials had blotted out the codes’ patterns for security.
“These QR codes may be designed to trick you into clicking on malicious links or providing personal and financial information,” the city wrote in an online statement.
To properly pay for street parking, drivers can either use the meters or access the Passport parking app, which Raleigh debuted downtown in 2019. The city said people should only encounter QR codes if they are paying parking violations or in parking garages.
Raleigh says city employees are checking all downtown meters for the improper codes. It encouraged the public to contact Raleigh Parking to report suspicious meter signage.
Aside from street parking, local drivers will continue to have access to two hours of free parking at five downtown decks after the Raleigh City Council in November voted to extend this initiative until June 2026.
Brian Gordon is the Business & Technology reporter for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. He writes about jobs, startups and big tech developments unique to the North Carolina Triangle. Brian previously worked as a senior statewide reporter for the USA Today Network. Please contact him via email, phone, or Signal at 919-861-1238.
George Walker photographed with his wife, Elizabeth, around 2021. The beloved high school teacher and accomplished runner, who died this week at 64, showed extraordinary grace and dedication till the end.
Courtesy of the Walker family
As an accomplished distance runner who figured he logged some 120,000 miles in his lifetime, George Walker’s biggest claim to fame was shocking the competition with an underdog win at the 1986 Charlotte Observer Marathon. As a beloved teacher at Independence High School in Charlotte for more than 27 years, he mastered the gift of gab in the classroom, where he made lasting impressions on legions of students.
Walker loved both running and teaching with all his heart, and that’s why his wife, Elizabeth, said “there couldn’t be a worse disease” — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), which over time robbed him of his ability to move and speak — “for someone like George to have.”
George Walker died Friday at Atrium Health Hospice & Palliative Care Union in Monroe after a roughly two-year battle, surrounded by family. He was 64.
He had, of course, been thinking about this day for a long time.
George Walker was diagnosed with ALS in May 2024, but had been experiencing symptoms for several months before that. Courtesy of the Walker family
In an interview with The Charlotte Observer in his bedroom on Nov. 10, Walker was able to manage just a handful of words at a time between labored breaths, in a weakened, raspy voice. But he gave a clear-eyed answer regarding his imminent passing: “I’ve accepted it. We talk about it openly. It’s not taboo. It’s 100% terminal, so it’s not like cancer, where you can fight.” He added that he had “no regrets” about the life he lived. “I don’t think there’s one person on this earth who hates me.”
And in the end, he was ready — as Elizabeth puts it, “for the next great adventure.”
In fact, George was very likely as prepared as he could have possibly been.
An auspicious (and sneaky) marathon debut
A native of the Charlotte area by way of Charleston, S.C., George Walker’s running career started on the track team at Albemarle Road Junior High and blossomed at the high school where he’d eventually return to teach: Independence, for which he starred both in cross-country and track.
He chose to remain in North Carolina for college, majoring in history at UNC Wilmington while also making history, as the first cross-country runner to earn an athletic scholarship from the university.
There was no slowing down for him after graduation.
While trying to find work as a teacher, Walker saved money by living with his parents in Matthews and pieced together income by chasing prize money in races all over the country that offered them, as long as he could get there cheaply.
But it was here in Charlotte where he claimed his biggest payday.
At age 24, Walker entered the 1986 Charlotte Observer Marathon — his first 26.2-mile race — on a bit of a whim, without even giving his personal running coach a heads-up. “I was gonna pretend,” he joked, wryly, “that I got in the wrong race by accident.” (The event also featured a 10K race.)
His bib number, 3381, actually suggested he wasn’t on anyone’s radar; in competitive running, numbers in the single or low-double digits typically are reserved for the bibs worn by professional, elite or at the very least sub-elite runners.
Walker got out in front of most of them early, though. And although the final miles nearly broke him, he was able to surge into a lead he maintained till he crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 22 minutes and 5 seconds. At the time, it set the mark for fastest marathon ever run by a North Carolinian on a North Carolina course.
In a televised post-race interview, WBTV legend Bob Lacey asked Walker, “What kept you going the last few miles?” The winner replied: “I knew if I quit, I … would be forgotten. If I held on and won, it would be something I would remember forever.”
He went home with $4,000, which would help pay for two-thirds of the new car he bought later that year.
George Walker of Mint Hill, photographed in November while watching a YouTube video featuring a recap of his victory at the 1986 Charlotte Observer Marathon. Walker, 64, died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) this week. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
‘The most impassioned teacher I ever had’
Later that year, Walker landed the job at his high school alma mater, where he would go on to develop a sterling reputation, both as a beloved goofball of an 11th-grade history teacher — famous for, among other things, teaching his students to say “King George the Third” with a British accent — and as the coach of the Patriots’ cross-country team.
Independence also helped him find the love of his life in Elizabeth, a fellow teacher, whom he married in 2004.
Elizabeth Walker told the Observer her husband was “Independence’s biggest fan and biggest advocate,” someone who would show up at school board meetings if he was needed to stand up for his kids or his fellow faculty members. Among the many videos sent to Walker over the summer by former students who’d gotten wind of his terminal illness, one featured a woman who gushed: “He was by far the most impassioned teacher that I ever had growing up.”
He was by far the most tireless, as well, when it came to both his vocation and his fitness.
Walker went 18 years — from October 1995 until June 2013, when he retired — without missing a day of school. It dwarfed his longest running streak — one eclipsing 1,000 straight days — though that was still a massively impressive feat in its own right.
The more invested he became in his students, he told the Observer, the less-important running became to him over the course of his career.
“Running is selfish, but teaching is selfless,” he wrote in a speech delivered by Elizabeth on his behalf in August, when Independence dedicated the school’s track in his name. “As a runner, your focus is on trying to develop and improve yourself. … As a teacher, your focus is on trying to make everyone in front of you the best they can be.”
Two years after retiring, Walker returned to Independence as a regular substitute teacher.
“I had told everyone it was to earn some extra money,” he wrote in his speech. “But the truth was, I missed the students. I missed being in the classroom.”
Independence High School dedicated its track to George Walker over the summer. Courtesy of the Walker family
Deciding to move gracefully toward death
Sometime in the middle of 2023, George Walker started getting a tingling sensation in his feet. His running went downhill fast, lacing up for what would be the last run of his life on Labor Day in 2023.
He continued walking, often six or seven miles per day, and could still bang out bunches of push-ups on command. But diminished dexterity in his fingers came next, and his endurance decreased to where — by the following spring — he was mostly just going out to walk the dogs a short distance.
Doctors diagnosed Walker with ALS on May 4, 2024.
“When I first found out, I read 5% make it 20 years,” he recalled. “So I said, ‘OK, that’ll be me.’” He changed his outlook, however, upon learning it would mean eventually being on a feeding tube. “I said, ‘That’s not living, as far as I’m concerned.’”
Instead, he decided to move gracefully toward death by spending time reflecting on his past, appreciating what he could appreciate despite his circumstances in the present, and planning for the future.
That meant leafing through copious newspaper clippings that celebrate him in some way or another, smiling over them, and sharing iPhone photos of his favorites with anyone he thought might be interested.
That meant snuggling with his devoted toy poodle; binge-watching TV shows on Netflix; sending gift cards to about 200 friends, including some he hadn’t seen in decades, “just to tell ’em ‘thanks,’” he said; and, after losing most of his ability to chew and swallow, putting Hershey’s Kisses into his mouth and letting the sweet chocolate just melt there.
But most importantly, that meant making sure Elizabeth would enjoy golden years that were truly golden.
Although George hadn’t left the bedroom since May, he kept busy by phone, email and text in his final months, with a laser-focus on generally getting the couple’s finances in order for Elizabeth and, more specifically, managing renovations of a paid-off townhouse that was previously a rental property.
She’ll move into it and net the profits from the sale of their house, which also is paid off. She’ll get life insurance money from a policy taken out before he was diagnosed. She’ll want for nothing, according to George’s plan.
“I even told her, ‘If you meet the right person, get married.’ It’d be very selfish to not say that.”
He paused, then broke the somberness hanging in the air with another wry quip: “I also told her, ‘Just don’t pick up a gambling habit.’”
George Walker had no children of his own, but in addition to Elizabeth leaves behind a stepson, Jeffrey Caleb Canipe; a sister, Brenda Walker Lloyd; a collection of in-laws; his toy poodle Leo; a seven-month-old black Lab, Arya (named for “Game of Thrones’” heroine Arya Stark); dozens of cards and appreciation videos from former students; two very fat scrapbooks full of running memories; several bags of miniature chocolates; and a piece of simple advice:
If there’s something you want to do with your life, do it. Don’t put it off. Because you just never know when it will be too late.
A framed photo of George Walker running a road race in Charlotte in 1992, on display in the Walkers’ bedroom. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
This story was originally published January 2, 2026 at 2:43 PM.
Théoden Janes has spent nearly 20 years covering entertainment and pop culture for the Observer. He also thrives on telling emotive long-form stories about extraordinary Charlotteans and — as a veteran of three dozen marathons and two Ironman triathlons — occasionally writes about endurance and other sports. Support my work with a digital subscription
Workers test the lights on a crown backstage at Charlotte’s New Year’s celebration in this file photo. During the city’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations in uptown, police made fewer arrests than in 2024.
David T. Foster III
Observer file photo
Officers arrested two teens on weapons charges and seized two guns during Charlotte’s New Year’s Eve celebration in uptown, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Thursday.
A 14-year-old was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a stolen firearm, police said. An 18-year-old was charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
CMPD didn’t say if they know how the 14-year-old got a gun or whether a parent will be charged. Police didn’t reply to an email Thursday.
Police reported no major incidents at the city’s annual celebration , including at Romare Bearden Park and Truist Field.
Eight adults were also arrested on drug, weapon, disorderly conduct and other charges during the 2025 celebration. And 10 young people ages 10 through 15 were arrested on charges of violating the city’s youth protection ordinance, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
On Thursday, CMPD thanked these agencies for helping protect public safety on Wednesday night: Charlotte Fire Department, MEDIC, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management, North Carolina State Highway Patrol, Mecklenburg County Alcohol Beverage Control, N.C. Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the FBI.
This story was originally published January 1, 2026 at 10:47 AM.
Joe Marusak has been a reporter for The Charlotte Observer since 1989 covering the people, municipalities and major news events of the region, and was a news bureau editor for the paper. He currently reports on breaking news. Support my work with a digital subscription
Two men died in their burning home on Red Oak Drive in Johnston County on Christmas morning.
Richard Stradling
rstradling@newsobserver.com
A father and his adult son died in their burning home in Johnston County early Christmas morning, authorities said.
Both men were disabled, which made it difficult to escape the home on Red Oak Drive. A third resident was able to get out, authorities said.
Neighbors told The News & Observer the men are John Jones and his son Scott. They said Scott was in his 50s and had cerebral palsy, which confined him to a wheelchair They said his father had diabetes, which had left him blind. They said John’s wife suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation as she tried to help the men get out.
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the Thursday morning fire, which gutted the single-story house.
Someone called 911 to report the fire at 5:07 a.m. A truck and crew from the Wilson’s Mills Fire & Rescue station on Cleveland Road, about a mile away, was there within minutes, according to fire Chief Jason Moore.
When they arrived, flames were visible from the front of the house and were spreading to the roof, Moore said. Firefighters learned someone may be trapped inside, he said, and pushed in through the front door.
About 10 feet inside the living room they found one of the two men dead on the floor, Moore said. By then, most of the house was in flames and the roof was beginning to fall in, he said. So firefighters retreated outside.
They then learned that a second person was still inside. When they determined it was safe to go back in, firefighters again went through the front door, Moore said. After about 10 minutes, they found the second man dead on the floor of a hallway, about eight from where they found the first one, he said.
Moore said the third resident of the home spent some time in an ambulance but declined to be taken to a hospital. She is receiving help from the American Red Cross.
It took firefighters about 30 minutes to bring the fire under control, Moore said. The house was cluttered with debris, and firefighters spent another hour or so making sure none of it was still burning.
“It’s going to continue to smolder the next day or so,” Moore said.
He said about two dozen firefighters and five EMS personnel responded to the fire. The Wilson’s Mills department had help from neighboring departments in Cleveland, Four Oaks, Selma and Smithfield.
This story was originally published December 25, 2025 at 1:25 PM.
Richard Stradling covers transportation for The News & Observer. Planes, trains and automobiles, plus ferries, bicycles, scooters and just plain walking. He’s been a reporter or editor for 38 years, including the last 26 at The N&O. 919-829-4739, rstradling@newsobserver.com.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded JetZero a $235 million contract to build a full-scale demonstrator jet. The company hopes to fly this future experimental plane in 2027.
JetZero
What will passenger airplanes look like in 2036? Tube-and-wing designs have been the standard shape, with Boeing and Airbus dominating production, but a young California aviation company is pursuing different dimensions.
Its prototype aircraft resembles a flying squirrel at full extension. The body is flatter and blends into the wings, creating a wider cabin for passengers. This jetmaker intends to use a lighter material known as stitch composite that, along with the unique look, promises superior fuel efficiency.
The plane from California-based JetZero is called the Z4, and if it achieves its sky-high ambitions, both commercial air travel and the North Carolina Piedmont will have changed.
In June, JetZero announced a new $4.7 billion, 14,560-worker factory at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro. It is North Carolina’s largest new job-creation commitment of the year — or of any recent year.
The state landed a robust number of major jobs plans in 2025. Last year’s top hiring project pledged to create 1,000 jobs; since June, North Carolina has backed five economic developments with four-digit hiring projection. And JetZero soars above them all.
Now for a dose of reality: most major jobs projects North Carolina has backed with economic incentives never reach their hiring targets. Since 2007, the state has awarded more than $5 billion in economic incentives through its job development investment grant program, yet has only disbursed around $227.3 million. Though many JDIG projects remain active, this award-to-disbursement rate is less than 5%.
One need not look farther than last year’s biggest jobs headline, a promised 1,000-worker factory in Edgecombe County from the sodium-ion battery maker Natron Energy. The company soon faced financial issues and went out of business this September. And the top project of 2022, a Chatham County vehicle factory from the electric carmaker VinFast, has not gotten off the ground nearly four years later.
But the holidays are a time for hope, not skepticism. And while no plane manufacturer can know what the industry will look like in a decade, JetZero does have key partnerships and momentum. Here’s a glass-half-full look at North Carolina’s top five job creation projects of 2025.
JetZero: 14,560 jobs
Airbus and Boeing presently make more than 90% of commercial aircraft. It is this duopoly JetZero looks to end.
“Not only will this plane be 50% more fuel efficient,” JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary said when announcing the Greensboro factory in June. “It’s going to deliver a better passenger experience than you’ve ever had before on any other plane.”
Its North Carolina jobs are expected to pay an average salary of at least $89,340. While the state’s main incentive involves no upfront money, the North Carolina General Assembly did allocate $450 million to prepare the airport site, including dollars for site construction and surrounding infrastructure.
A design image of JetZero’s Z4 aircraft, which the California startup says it will build in Greensboro, N.C. JetZero
JetZero was founded in 2020 with the goal of bringing blended-wing shaped aircraft to the masses. Three years later, the U.S. Air Force awarded the company a $235 million contract to build a full-scale demonstrator jet, which is expected to fly in 2027. JetZero has partnered with Delta Air Lines. In March, JetZero signed components deals with RTX subsidiaries Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace to supply this demonstrator.
When announcing its North Carolina factory, the company said it expected to start construction in Greensboro during the first half of 2026, with customers getting jets in the beginning of next decade.
Scout Motors: 1,200 jobs
U.S. driver demand for electric vehicles has lagged once-lofty projections, even before President Donald Trump retook office and helped end the federal EV tax credit. And many in recent years have wondered about the fate of traditional corporate office space in a post-pandemic world.
One company aims to buck both trends. Scout Motors, an American subsidiary of German automaker Volkswagen, picked Charlotte for its new headquarters with a potential $207 million investment and substantial jobs target. Workers are expected to be hired over a five-year period starting in 2026, at an average salary of $172,878 (the state does not announce median salaries).
Volkswagen aims to revive Scout Motors, which was popular in the 1960s and 1970s, as an electric vehicle brand. The company is currently building a manufacturing plant in South Carolina.
North Carolina still doesn’t have its long-sought major car factory, but between the Scout Motors HQ and the new Toyota battery plant, the state is bolstering its automotive reputation.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, right, closes the door on a Scout Motors vehicle after driving up to a press conference where it was announced that the company is making Charlotte its new corporate headquarters on November 12, 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Jabil: 1,181 jobs
No company on this list has been hotter on Wall Street than Jabil.
In late June, North Carolina awarded the manufacturing supply chain firm incentives to expand into Rowan County, near Salisbury, about halfway between Charlotte and Winston-Salem. A member of the Fortune 500, Jabil already has around 1,000 workers in the state across three other facilities — including one in Mebane. Its fourth location is expected to more than double its North Carolina headcount.
The Florida company’s stock has done very well, up 65% in 2025 and more than 445% over the past five years. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence have fueled this rise, and Jabil said its Rowan County move is part of a $500 million investment to grow these services in the Southeast.
Vulcan Elements: 1,000 jobs
Vulcan Elements began this year as a lesser-known startup, but the two-year-old North Carolina company with a 31-year-old CEO is now a big player in a reemerging U.S. sector that is getting more attention and dollars. Vulcan aims to break Chinese supply chain dominance of rare earth magnets, which are critical in an extensive range of commercial and military products.
“We’re rebuilding this muscle in this industry here in the United States,” Maslin told The News & Observer this year.
On the last day of March, Vulcan opened its first small manufacturing site at its headquarters in Research Triangle Park. Then in August, the company raised $65 million. Then in November, it continued its rapid rise with its two biggest news headlines yet.
First, Vulcan received more than $1 billion from the U.S. government and private investors under an agreement to finance its first large-scale factory. This deal gives the federal government equity in Vulcan, with the U.S. Department of Commerce getting a $50 million stake and the Department of Defense getting “warrants” — the ability to buy Vulcan shares in the future.
On Nov. 18, Vulcan announced it would build this inaugural commercial plant in Benson, a town of 4,500 near the Johnston-Harnett county line. The jobs are to pay an average minimum salary of $81,932, per the state’s incentive agreement.
Maslin estimated his company will have 50 employees by year’s end, with much more hiring to come.
Vulcan Elements cofounder and CEO John Maslin gives opening remarks at the company’s facility grand opening in Research Triangle Park on March 31, 2025. Vulcan Elements
Aspida: 1,000 jobs
Another young company with substantial growth projections in North Carolina is Aspida. In November, the Durham financial services company committed to hire 1,000 new workers at a new local office by 2032, multiplying the current workforce of this life insurance and annuities provider.
Aspida was founded in 2019 as a subsidiary of the Los Angeles-based global investment firm Ares Management and has around 200 employees at its current office on Englert Drive in south Durham. The company declined media interviews at the time of its incentive award, but Aspida CEO Lou Hensley credited his firm’s “innovative technology platform” for driving growth in an interview with The Triangle Business Journal, which named Aspida the area’s fastest-growing private company.
Hensley estimated Aspida will add 50 workers over the next year. Though less finance-centric than Charlotte, the Triangle is home to several significant financial services sites, with Fidelity Investments today being the largest employer in Research Triangle Park.
Aspira Financial office on Englert Drive in Durham, N.C. on Nov. 19, 2025. Brian Gordon
Brian Gordon is the Business & Technology reporter for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. He writes about jobs, startups and big tech developments unique to the North Carolina Triangle. Brian previously worked as a senior statewide reporter for the USA Today Network. Please contact him via email, phone, or Signal at 919-861-1238.
All lanes of US-70 are reopened after a deadly crash in Johnston County
on Sunday.
State troopers were called around 6:30 p.m. to US-70 near Old Cornwallis
Road.
Troopers said a pickup truck ran into the back of a SUV that was turning
into a driveway on US-70 near Princeton. The driver of the SUV died on the scene.
Troopers say alcohol and speed were a factor in the crash. The driver of
the pickup truck has been arrested.
Troopers have not released the names of anyone involved, nor any information about the charges of the person arrested. WRAL News has
reached out for more information.
It’s not often that the governor shows up for a graduation ceremony for new driver’s license examiners at the Division of Motor Vehicles.
But the graduates of the DMV’s training school who received their certificates Wednesday represent a significant expansion of the agency’s workforce and are a key part of its strategy for reducing long lines and wait times at driver’s license offices.
The 149 people who completed the training since June represent the largest graduating class in DMV history. They include 64 examiners who fill new jobs authorized by the General Assembly this summer, the first growth in driver’s license office staff in more than two decades.
Gov. Josh Stein told the graduates that the work they do is essential, even if the public doesn’t always appreciate it.
“I want to thank you, the graduates sitting in front of me, for stepping up and saying yes to serving the people of North Carolina,” Stein said. “You will make a difference in people’s daily lives — in their work, in their ability to travel and above all in how they feel about the state of North Carolina’s government. So let’s show them that we work for them.”
Few people go to work as a driver’s license examiner right out of high school or college. Most of the new hires spent years, often decades, doing something else.
Kashante Forte, who now works in the Raleigh East office, was laid off as a federal contractor earlier this year. Justin Hernker, now in the Durham East office, was a self-employed web designer for 15 years and decided he wanted a job where he could interact with people one on one.
Christal Dunlap had retired after 20 years as a paralegal in the Army when she went to a DMV office with her teenaged daughter to get her license last December, after previous failed attempts.
“I saw the line, the challenges and, once inside, I saw the ‘We’re now hiring’ sign,” said Dunlap, who works in the Raeford office. “So I was like, let me see if I can be part of the solution.”
Graduates of the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles driver license examiner school take the oath of office at Nash Community College on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. The 149 new examiners make up the largest graduating class in DMV history. Richard Stradling rstradling@newsobserver.com
The DMV, with the help of lawmakers, is taking several steps to try to shorten the lines at driver’s license offices. They include a bill signed into law in September that allows residents to renew a driver’s license or state identification card two consecutive times online, as long as their credential is not a REAL ID.
In the first two months, the new law allowed 80,000 additional people to renew their license or ID online, Stein said.
“That’s 80,000 people who before had to go to a DMV office and get in line with all the other people, slowing everybody down,” he said. “It was a good move.”
But Wednesday was a time to celebrate the new employees. DMV commissioner Paul Tine called them “standard-bearers” for an agency with a new emphasis on good customer service.
“You, our front-line examiners, are the most important people in making all this come true,” Tine told them. “Your smile, your patience, your knowledge, your commitment will shape their entire view of North Carolina state government.”
The 64 additional license examiners means the DMV now has one employee for each computer terminal at its 115 offices statewide. That’s better than before, when dozens of those terminals went unused. But Tine said the agency is still short-staffed when you count vacations, sick time, training and extra duties, such as Saturday hours.
“We’ve still got a ways to go,” he said. “But every little step helps, and I’m excited about the progress that we’re making.”
Richard Stradling covers transportation for The News & Observer. Planes, trains and automobiles, plus ferries, bicycles, scooters and just plain walking. He’s been a reporter or editor for 38 years, including the last 26 at The N&O. 919-829-4739, rstradling@newsobserver.com.
A North Carolina school resource officer was arrested on child-sex charges Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, Rowan County sheriff’s officials said.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
A former North Carolina school resource officer was arrested on charges involving child sexual abuse material on Wednesday, Rowan County sheriff’s officials said.
Austin Tyler Moore, 35, of Cleveland, worked at North Rowan Elementary School for the Spencer Police Department. He was removed from his assignment the day sheriff’s detectives began investigating him, officials said.
That was Oct. 29, when the sheriff’s office received a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Moore had child sexual abuse material, according to a sheriff’s office news release.
Moore was arrested and charged with four counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor after investigators executed a search warrant on Moore’s assigned school office, his home and his electronic devices and accounts, according to the sheriff’s office.
“No evidence was found to suggest that any student at North Rowan Elementary School or any other Rowan-Salisbury school was victimized,” according to the sheriff’s statement.
Moore was jailed on a $100,000 bond.
After an internal investigation, Moore was fired as a Spencer officer on Nov. 12, according to a statement from the town.
Veteran officer to assume post at school
“Our public integrity and trust are at the forefront of our ability to serve, and we have no tolerance for the type of conduct that is being alleged,” town and police officials said in the joint statement.
Cpl. Andrew Niblock, who worked several years as the resource officer at North Rowan High School, has replaced Moore at North Rowan Elementary, officials said.
Joe Marusak has been a reporter for The Charlotte Observer since 1989 covering the people, municipalities and major news events of the region, and was a news bureau editor for the paper. He currently reports on breaking news. Support my work with a digital subscription
Tuckaseegee Elementary’s Principal LaTresha Wilson is surprised with the announcement that she is the regional 2026 Principal of the Year on Tuesday, December 16, 2025.
Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez
mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
LaTresha Wilson, principal of Tuckaseegee Elementary School in west Charlotte, has been named a finalist for the 2026 North Carolina Principal of the Year.
Students, district leaders and the 2025 winner, Jason Johnson, surprised Wilson with the honor Tuesday morning, the second such surprise she’s received in three months. Wilson was previously named Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Principal of the Year on Oct. 3.
“I know that I live and I breathe being a principal and pouring into these kids every day, so it means so much to me,” Wilson told The Charlotte Observer after she was named the CMS principal of the year. “The heart and the dedication that I put into it, I know that it’s unmatched.”
Jason Johnson, Wells Fargo’s 2025 Principal of the Year, informs Tuckaseegee Elementary’s Principal LaTresha Wilson that she is the regional 2026 Principal of the Year on Tuesday, December 16, 2025. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
She is now one of nine principals, out of the state’s more than 2,500, in the running for The Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year award to be announced in May. The award was introduced in 1984.
The statewide 2026 winner will serve as an advisor to the State Board of Education for a two-year term and serves on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Public School Forum.
Wilson is in her third year as a first-time principal, after previously serving as assistant principal at Paw Creek Elementary School. Over the last two years, Tuckaseegee’s school performance grade from the state has improved from a D to a B under Wilson’s leadership.
Wilson in large part credits her staff and her students for the school’s progress. Tuckaseegee is one of the district’s Title I schools, meaning it has a high proportion of low-income students, and Wilson said students are “shattering stereotypes.”
Rebecca Noel reports on education for The Charlotte Observer. She’s a native of Houston, Texas, and graduated from Rice University. She later received a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. When she’s not reporting, she enjoys reading, running and frequenting coffee shops around Charlotte.
Brayan Alvarez Ortiz, 28, a traveling nurse, has been accused of sexually assaulting sedated patients at UNC Rex Hospital. Police believe there may be more victims and are encouraging them to come forward. As a general policy, The N&O does not publish police mug shots. We are publishing this photo as it may help other victims.
Raleigh Police Department
RALEIGH
Prosecutors have identified a third victim in the case of a UNC Rex Hospital nurse accused of sexually assaulting patients who were recovering from surgery.
Brayan Alvarez Ortiz, 28, appeared in Wake County District Court Thursday via a feed from jail, where he is being held without bond.
Police charged Ortiz Wednesday with sexual contact under the context of medical treatment, second-degree sex offense and sexual battery due to reports of assault in November. Officers spoke to a Rex patient who had been under anesthesia and soon found a second who reported being touched while sedated.
On Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Kathryn Pomeroy said her office learned of a third victim less than 24 hours after police asked patients to come forward. All of them were recovering from surgery.
“The defendant was sexually abusing patients who were incredibly vulnerable,” she said.
Pomeroy added Ortiz is in the United States on a green card and that his case will involve immigration issues.
First-degree kidnapping charges have been added to Ortiz’s case, and Pomeroy said more charges relating to the new victim will be added Friday.
Ortiz spoke over a telephone and said only that he had hired an attorney. Defense counsel Seth Blum said he has not asked for a reduction in Ortiz’s bond because all the charges have not yet been filed.
“It’s very early days,” he said outside the courtroom. “There’s a lot of information still to come out.”
UNC Health spokesman Alan Wolf said Ortiz joined the Rex staff in 2019, put himself through nursing school and had only become a nurse this summer. He is no longer employed with the health system, Wolf said.
The NC Nursing Board suspended Ortiz’ registered nurse license after a complaint on Nov. 21, records show. The report said Ortiz had improperly touched the genitals of two male patients after removing Foley catheters, which go into the urethra.
Raleigh police and prosecutors have referred to Ortiz as a traveling nurse. Blum could not clarify that Thursday.
“I don’t know what a traveling nurse is,” he said.
Rex has set up a confidential reporting phone line where patients or family members can share information. Someone will contact them as soon as possible to discuss any concerns about this situation. The number is (919) 784-1800.
Josh Shaffer is a general assignment reporter on the watch for “talkers,” which are stories you might discuss around a water cooler. He has worked for The News & Observer since 2004 and writes a column about unusual people and places.
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) in Duplin County, NC. Hog farms can be identified by the lagoons located next to the long hog houses. The hog waste is washed from the houses into the lagoon, where it is liquified and then sprayed on nearby fields as fertilizer.
Hog lagoons have breached in flooding from storms, and lawsuits continue over the rights of farmers to spray waste on fields versus their neighbors’ right to clean air.
Jeremy M. Lange
Jeremy M. Lange
After years of staffing cuts, North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality likely doesn’t have the resources to take on the extra enforcement work it would need to do if the Trump administration keeps slashing the Environmental Protection Agency, a new report says.
The Environmental Integrity Project released findings Wednesday showing North Carolina cut the greatest percentage of jobs from its lead environmental agency of any state in the country from 2010 to 2024. The state cut 32% of employees at DEQ, formerly the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The 386 job losses came through firings and the elimination of unfilled positions and have left the protection of air, water and land quality in the state at risk, the report says.
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) in Duplin County, NC. Hog farms can be identified by the lagoons located next to the long hog houses. The hog waste is washed from the houses into the lagoon, where it is liquified and then sprayed on nearby fields as fertilizer.Hog lagoons have breached in flooding from storms, and lawsuits continue over the rights of farmers to spray waste on fields versus their neighbors’ right to clean air. Jeremy M. Lange Jeremy M. Lange
The Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit watchdog group started by the former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Civil Enforcement, said it looked at funding and staffing trends in environmental agencies in every state to see how they would be able to take on additional oversight work as President Donald Trump proposes additional severe cuts to the EPA.
“Because of budget cuts, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is ill-positioned to confront the growing pollution footprint from the state’s rapidly expanding factory farming industry or the threat of climate-driven storms and flooding in its coastal communities,” the report says.
North Carolina cut staffing to the Department of Environmental Quality by 32% from 2010 to 2024, according to a report released Dec. 10, 2025, by the Environmental Integrity Project. That’s the highest percentage reduction of any state, and the group says it means N.C. is in no shape to take on the work of the EPA if that agency suffers further cuts. Environmental Integrity Project
The study looked at state budget documents from 2010 to 2024 and found that 27 states cut the budgets of their environmental agencies over the past 15 years and 31 states also have cut staffing.
Congress has not approved a 2026 budget, and it’s not clear how much of the White House’s request for an additional $4.2 billion in cuts to the EPA lawmakers will approve. Since the start of Trump’s current term, more than 3,000 EPA staffers have retired or been fired, according to reports.
The Environmental Integrity Project’s report argues that additional EPA cuts will combine with cuts at the state level to leave enforcement of environmental protections almost impossible.
“These deep reductions mean that the Trump administration’s proposed downsizing of the EPA would have an increased impact on pollution control efforts across the country,” the report says. “Not only will the federal pollution cop no longer be on the beat, state authorities may not show up either. Many states will not be able to shoulder more environmental oversight responsibilities because of years of their own cost-cutting, with a gradual erosion of their capacity for managing pollution often as bad or worse than the downsizing at the federal level.”
Following Hurricane Floyd in 1999, hogs wait for rescue on a hog barn near Trenton, NC as flood waters from the Neuse River inundated a farm. Mel Nathanson News & Observer file photo
North Carolina as a case study
A section of the report focuses on North Carolina’s DEQ, which was formed from DENR by the Regulatory Reform Act of 2015, signed by then-Gov. Pat McCrory. Lawmakers said at the time that the changes eliminated unnecessary regulation. Environmentalists said it eliminated rules designed to safeguard public health.
The report says the state agency lost more than 200 jobs under McCrory, a Republican, but that it also lost more than 200 jobs under Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat. During Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s two terms, the report says, DEQ held relatively steady, losing jobs in some budget years and gaining them in others.
Republicans have held control of the legislature throughout the 15-year period.
Growing pains
Over those years, North Carolina’s population grew, along with its economy, its budget and, the report notes, its factory farming industry.
As of March 2025, the USDA reported there were 8.1 million hogs in North Carolina in concentrated animal feeding operations, also known as CAFOs, making N.C. the third largest hog-producer in the nation, behind Iowa and Minnesota. North Carolina’s broiler chicken industry is the fourth-largest in the country, producing nearly a billion birds for meat each year.
All those animals produce millions of tons of manure each year. Runoff from farms can send that and other agricultural waste into streams during heavy rain events such as hurricanes and tropical storms, which scientists say are likely to continue to be more intense as the climate warms.
‘A regulatory vacuum’
In the report, Drew Ball, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Southeast Campaigns team, said there’s “a regulatory vacuum” in the state where large hog and poultry farms are concerned.
“The unchecked expansion of hog and poultry farms has left the state environmental agency unable to even evaluate the cumulative impacts,” Ball said. “At this point, policy experts and advocates can’t even get the information they need to protect the public. You can’t respond if you don’t know what’s coming online.”
During an online press conference to announce the release of the report Wednesday, Ball said that with cuts to DEQ and EPA, North Carolina residents may find there is no one to call when their tap water is cloudy or smells like ammonia, or when flooding sends industrial chemicals or animal waste downstream to their neighborhood.
Environmental protections, he said, are seeing “shrinking staff, shrinking budgets and shrinking political support.”
This story is available free to all readers thanks to financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and Green South Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. If you would like to help support local journalism, please consider a digital subscription, which you can get here.
Martha Quillin writes about climate change and the environment. She has covered North Carolina news, culture, religion and the military since joining The News & Observer in 1987.
Leake, a teacher by trade, spent 11 years on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education before transitioning to the county commission.
Her tenure in public office has included controversial moments, including a heated exchange last year at the dais with fellow Commissioner George Dunlap and accusations of repeatedly calling a judge to discuss a sensitive juvenile court case involving a constituent, drawing a letter from a state attorney asking her to stop.
Regardless of the next results in District 2, the county commission is guaranteed to have at least one new face after the 2026 election cycle. District 5 Commissioner Laura Meier announced previously she won’t seek a fourth term in office next year. Attorney Charles DeLoach already announced he’ll run as a Democrat in her district.
Mary Ramsey is the local government accountability reporter for The Charlotte Observer. A native of the Carolinas, she studied journalism at the University of South Carolina and has also worked in Phoenix, Arizona and Louisville, Kentucky. Support my work with a digital subscription
The body of a missing North Carolina man was recently found in South Carolina and two people have been arrested, according to the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office.
On Nov. 20, the body of 33-year-old Mocksville, North Carolina, resident Jonathan Charles Shores was found in a wooded area near Newberry Road, the Fairfield County Coroner’s Office said. That’s in a part of Winnsboro between I-26 and I-77, and it’s about 130 miles from Mocksville, which is in Davidson County, North Carolina.
The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said it was working with members of the Davidson County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office to find Shores, who was believed to have been shot and killed Nov. 9 — in Lexington, N.C. His remains were left by two people driving through South Carolina, before they continued on to Georgia, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
It appears that South Carolina’s only connection to Shores’ death is that it was where his body was dumped by 26-year-old Jose Guadalupe Lopez and his 31-year-old girlfriend Brennan Summer Alexander, Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery said in a news release.
Lopez is accused of shooting Shores then leaving North Carolina in the victim’s vehicle, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said. Alexander joined Lopez in the car, and neither of them provided aid to the victim nor reported the shooting to law enforcement, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
There was no word on a motive for the shooting, or what, if any, connection Shores had to Lopez or Alexander prior to the gunfire.
Lopez was taken into custody in Richmond County, Georgia, where he’s being held until extradition back to North Carolina will be arranged, the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said. Lopez, a convicted felon, was taken into custody Nov. 10 in Georgia on a possession of a firearm by a felon charge, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said. At that time, Shores had not yet been reported missing, and deputies released the vehicle to Alexander.
On Nov. 11, Shores was reported missing in Davidson County by his family, the coroner’s office said.
That was the same day that Alexander was arrested in Columbia County, Georgia, by members of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office for a hit-and-run collision while driving Shores’ vehicle, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies noted that the vehicle was associated with an active missing person investigation, and a possible bullet hole and biological evidence were discovered inside the vehicle, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said. The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office seized the vehicle and Alexander was booked into the Columbia County Jail, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office.
In North Carolina, Lopez is facing a first-degree murder charge in addition to counts of conceal/fail to report death, felony assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and two counts of felony robbery with a dangerous weapon, law enforcement said.
Alexander will be charged with accessory after the fact in multiple counts in North Carolina, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. Like Lopez, Alexander is waiting to be extradited back to North Carolina.
Based on evidence and investigative work, detectives developed a timeline that placed Lopez and Alexander along with the victim’s body traveling through Fairfield County during the early morning hours of Nov. 10, the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said. That’s when their counterparts from Davidson County asked the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office for help in searching areas of interest in South Carolina.
A canvas of local camera systems and their surveillance footage corroborated Davidson County’s timeline of movements in the Winnsboro area on Nov. 10.
Despite the arrests, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said it’s continuing to investigate the shooting, along with the Fairfield County Coroner’s Office.
“Partnerships and thorough forensic and digital investigative work were essential in locating Mr. Shores and advancing this investigation,” Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons said in a news release.
In a breaking news situation, facts can be unclear and the situation may still be developing. The State is trying to get important information to the public as quickly and accurately as possible. This story will be updated as more information becomes available, and some information in this story may change as the facts become clearer. Refresh this page later for more updated information.
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Noah Feit is a Real Time reporter with The State focused on breaking news, public safety and trending news. The award-winning journalist has worked for multiple newspapers since starting his career in 1999. Support my work with a digital subscription
A man shot on U.S. 64 in eastern Wake County on Thursday morning has died, deputies said Sunday.
Derick Godwin, 55, died from the shooting that closed the highway for several hours Thursday. Wake deputies have identified the shooter, and there is “no known threat to the community,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Deputies did not provide an address for Godwin, but said he lived in Johnston County.
The shooting closed U.S. 64 between Lizard Lick and Rolesville roads. ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner, reported that Godwin had been shot in the head.
Deputies provided no other details Sunday. They have said the shooting was an “isolated incident.”
“We continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding this shooting,” deputies said.
A woman walking in the traffic lanes of I-440 died Friday night after being struck by several vehicles.
File photo
A woman who was walking between traffic lanes on I-440 died after being struck by several vehicles Friday night, Raleigh police said Saturday morning.
Quiyanna Kellon, 46, was walking on the white lines diving lanes on westbound I-440 between Wake Forest and Six Forks roads about 9 p.m. when she was struck by a 2024 Hyundai Elantra, police said. She was then stuck by several other vehicles, which the police did not identify.
Police said all of the drivers remained on the scene.
Kellon died as a result of her injuries, police said. The investigation is continuing.
Dave Hendrickson is the N&O’s growth and business editor. In 40+ years of journalism, he has worked for newspapers in Wisconsin, Virginia and North Carolina.
Six North Carolina workers receive Governor’s Award for Excellence for rescuing motorists.
They opened median gates and guided trapped vehicles off collapsing eastbound lanes.
Teams cleared the road within 85 minutes without any vehicles plunging into Pigeon River.
More than a hundred cars and trucks were trapped on Interstate 40 as the flooded Pigeon River began devouring the highway last fall.
Swollen from the remnants of Hurricane Helene, the river swept away trees, guardrails and pavement, as more than a mile of the eastbound lanes disappeared on the North Carolina side of the Tennessee state line.
But none of the cars or trucks fell into the river.
Now six North Carolina employees — five from the Department of Transportation and one state trooper — have received the highest award given to state workers for their efforts that day. NCDOT engineers Scottie Coggins, David Hall and Austin Phillips, IMAP drivers Garret McFalls and Christopher Strader and trooper Joe Henderson received the Governor’s Award for Excellence at a ceremony in Raleigh on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
“They went above and beyond to serve in the line of duty to protect the public and to act as heroes,” said Chris Lee, the deputy engineer for the NCDOT division that includes Pigeon River Gorge. “They saved the day, and we’re so proud of them, and we can’t thank them enough.”
The first 911 calls reporting problems with I-40 in the gorge came in just before noon on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. The remnants of Helene had dumped historic amounts of rain on the already saturated mountains of Western North Carolina and cracks appeared in the pavement as the eastbound lanes of I-40 began to break apart.
McFalls, Strader and Henderson responded to those calls. Coggins, Hall and Phillps had gone into the gorge to check on a rest area that had lost power and were soon pitching in.
“I actually watched the ground fall out from underneath the guardrails and the guardrails dangling there and the pavement cracking,” Hall said in a video made for the awards ceremony. “And we knew we had to get the people off the highway.”
A Haywood County sheriff’s deputy looks over the median barrier on Interstate 40 toward the missing eastbound lanes in the Pigeon River Gorge. Photo taken Oct. 17, 2024, three weeks after the remnants of Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina. Richard Stradling rstradling@newsobserver.com
The four-lane road winds along the narrow valley in Pisgah National Forest, perched on a shelf blasted into the side of the mountains. A concrete jersey barrier separated the east and westbound lanes, so as the failing highway brought eastbound traffic to a stop it had nowhere to go, trapped between the barrier and the raging river.
But about 3 miles from the state line was a metal gate in the median for emergencies like this. Some drivers figured out how to work the crank to open it enough to let cars through one at a time. McFalls, Coggins, Hall and Phillps opened the remaining sections to create a hole big enough for tractor-trailer trucks to swing through to the safety of the westbound lanes.
As more of the highway fell into the river, the six state employees, along with others, directed traffic through the gate, sometimes coaxing panicked drivers to carefully back up or take turns moving forward. According to the time stamp on a video shot by a Tennessee transportation worker who came to help, the eastbound lanes were clear about an hour and 25 minutes after the first 911 calls.
Six state employees who received the Governor’s Award for Excellence for their roles in preventing cars and trucks on Interstate 40 from falling into the Pigeon River after Hurricane Helene. They are, from left, state trooper Joe Henderson and NCDOT employees David Hall, Scottie Coggins, Austin Phillips, Garret McFalls and Christopher Strader. NCDOT
Speaking about the effort to get cars and trucks off I-40 in the weeks after Helene, the men honored this week all downplayed their individual roles and said it was a team effort. Henderson, the state trooper, even declined to speak to a reporter because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself, said his supervisor, 1st Sgt. B.E. Hipp.
But Hipp said at the time that he hoped to find a way to recognize what he considered heroism by Henderson and others who helped clear the road.
“Every day that I drive down to that gorge, I’m amazed that we didn’t lose anybody,” he said. “And I’m grateful and thankful for their actions.”
State honors another act of heroism during Helene
The Governor’s Awards for Excellence are given each year to state workers for outstanding accomplishments beyond their normal duties. Twenty-two received the awards this year in six categories. The award for those on I-40 was for “safety and heroism.”
Seven Wildlife Resources Commission employees also received the award in that category for their actions during Helene.
All seven were working at the Armstrong State Fish Hatchery in a remote area of McDowell County north of Marion when the storm hit. They tried in vain to save the hatchery and the 600,000 trout it housed as Rose and Armstrong creeks became torrents.
But they were able to save a neighbor, Michael Boone, whose house was destroyed by a landslide that carried him down Roses Creek toward the hatchery. As Boone clung to a piece of his house, he called for help. The hatchery employees were able to pull him to safety, tend to his wounds and call in a helicopter to get him medical attention.
“We get all this credit for saving Mike’s life, but he saved ours, too,” said Kailee Winters, fish culturist at the hatchery. “Because had he not been injured and needed immediate medical attention, I don’t know when we would have gotten out.”
Along with Winters, the other honored hatchery employees are Chuck Melton, Spike Gouge, Doug Arfmann, Luke Clarke, Jacob Setterlind and Elijah Winters.
This story was originally published November 21, 2025 at 1:42 PM.
Richard Stradling covers transportation for The News & Observer. Planes, trains and automobiles, plus ferries, bicycles, scooters and just plain walking. He’s been a reporter or editor for 38 years, including the last 26 at The N&O. 919-829-4739, rstradling@newsobserver.com.
