ReportWire

Tag: WRAL specialists

  • NC insurance commissioner: The cost of renters’ insurance is well worth it

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    Raleigh, NC — Six people were injured and 70 people were displaced Monday night after a massive fire ripped through Camden Westwood Apartments.

    One fire victim told WRAL News the owners of the complex required renters to have renters’ insurance.

    Insurance industry estimates show only half of the renters nationally have a policy on their property. It’s important to remember, while rental properties are insured by the owner, those policies don’t cover the replacement cost of any goods lost in a disaster or theft.

    North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey encouraged renters to take a quick walkthrough of their rental property and document everything on your phone. The cost of what people own dwarfs the cost of renters’ insurance, according to Causey.

    “Then try to calculate what they would have to pay to replace all their clothing items, all their phones, their computers any electronics that they might have and all their furniture, that they’d be really surprised at what it would cost to replace that,” Causey said.

    Most renters’ insurance premiums cost a couple hundred dollars a year. That’s essentially the value of one pair of high-end sneakers. For parents with older children who rent while they’re away from home, you can add their renters’ insurance to your policy and it’s even cheaper.

    Causey suggests you get your renter’s insurance through a local agent. That way, if you need to file a claim, the agent can see the damage first-hand, which could help with your claim.

    Causey also said if you do file a claim and the insurance company offers a settlement you think is too low, contact his office before you accept it.

     “You don’t have to take the first offer they give you,” Causey said.  The Department of Insurance can get involved in your case, which could result in offer you feel is more fair.

    There’s a form you can fill out online on the Department of Insurance’s website.

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  • Bipartisan commission gets to work on upgrading 28-year-old NC elections systems

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    North Carolina’s election technology is long overdue for an upgrade, state officials say, and now a bipartisan commission is poised to meet for the first time Tuesday to dive into the nitty-gritty of modernizing the systems. 

    In the end, officials say, election results should come faster, voter data should be better maintained, and the systems that organize votes should be more secure.

    North Carolina’s Statewide Elections Information Management System (SEIMS) dates to 1998. It has evolved into a tangle of technology, consisting of modern, web-based applications and legacy systems that are written in unsupported programming languages that pose security risks, and are difficult to manage and update. The current systems are “on the verge of malfunctioning due to various updates to operating and other system resources,” the state said in describing the upgrade to potential contractors.

    Lawmakers passed a spending package last year that included $15 million for the State Board of Elections to use for upgrades to the system, including improvements to campaign finance software. 

    State Auditor Dave Boliek, a Republican whose office oversees state election administration, created the bipartisan commission to help oversee the modernization effort, and to build faith among voters who might be skeptical of the process. The Modernization of Election Data Systems commission is made up of 22 members: professional election staffers, political appointees and academics, who are tasked with helping fix the technology that supports North Carolina’s elections.

    Election technology has come under scrutiny from some voters in recent years, fueled in part by President Donald Trump’s disproven claims about voter fraud during the 2020 election. In 2024, nearly one in every three North Carolina voters had little to no faith in the accuracy of election results, according to a WRAL News poll. Mistrust was highest among Trump supporters, even though audits of past election results haven’t found widespread voter fraud.

    A recent North Carolina lawsuit — brought by Republican Jefferson Griffin, who challenged a 2024 race for a state Supreme Court seat — put a brighter spotlight on election data management, though. Griffin challenged the validity of thousands of voters, saying they had errant or incorrect information on file with the state. Griffin lost that challenge and the race, but his effort prompted the state to seek to verify the identity of thousands of North Carolina voters.

    The tech upgrade also comes as Democrats question whether elections can be administered impartially following the transfer of election control from the Democratic governor’s office to the Republican state auditor — a move enabled by the Republican-led state legislature.

    Phase one of the modernization effort — including requesting proposals from vendors and creating the commission — is complete. The second phase will take several years. Boliek plans incremental modernization of the current system to keep it operational. 

    In the meantime, Boliek says the current system is in good shape to produce accurate results and a fair election.

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  • State board investigating allegations of misconduct by voter registration-drive workers

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    The North Carolina State Board of Elections is  investigating allegations of misconduct by voter registration-drive workers. 

    The board said Friday that it received complaints alleging that workers have been impersonating state or county elections officials in Brunswick, Buncombe, Chowan, Haywood, Nash, Scotland, and Wake counties.

    The board said it received complaints of people falsely telling voters that they must re-register to vote to cast a ballot in future elections. Under the law, however, voters who are already registered are not required to re-register unless they have moved to a new county. Voters who move to a new address in the same county or wish to change their name or party affiliation should submit a new voter registration application to update their voter record, elections officials said. 

    Elections officials also received complaints of people going door-to-door, falsely identifying themselves as county or state election workers. Government election workers do not go door-to-door for any reason, the board said. 

    The board is also investigating allegations of voter registration applications turned into county boards of elections with missing or inaccurate voter information, such as a wrong birthdate or a voter identification number different that doesn’t match what’s on file with state elections officials. It is a felony to falsify a voter registration form, officials said. 

    “When workers involved in voter drives falsify or alter information on registration forms, it can cause problems for innocent voters at the polls,” Sam Hayes, the director of the state elections board, said in a statement. “This is unacceptable and hurts voter confidence.”

    The board regularly investigates allegations of fraud or misconduct. In October 2022, the state board investigated complaints from voters who said they were confused by mailers that included inaccurate information about whether they voted in the 2018 or 2020 elections.

    Tips for Voters

    The state board on Friday provided tips and reminders for voters as the March 3 primary election nears: 

    • All voters can check their registration status on the state board’s website to double check if they are registered or see if they need to re-register. 
    • Voters registering to vote at a registration drive don’t have to return the form to the worker at the drive. Voters can deliver the form in person or by mail to their county board of elections.
    • County and state elections officials do not go door-to-door. The board asked voters to report instances of home visits by people identifying themselves as election officials.
    • Voters can always ask voter registration workers for their information to verify their identities to make sure they are actually working for election officials.

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  • Wake County approves new student reassignment plan to ease overcrowding. Which schools are impacted

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    Students at 15 Wake County schools will move to a different school, in a proposal approved by the school board 7-0 Tuesday evening. Board Member Cheryl Caulfield was absent.

    The changes — affecting just under 1,500 students — are primarily recommended to fill up one new elementary school in the county’s growing southern area and to reduce overcrowding at some schools. The new student assignment plan also includes changes to which schools a student can apply to for a different calendar, with some choices proposed for elimination.

    Families can look up whether they are affected by the changes here. Anyone affected has until Dec. 12 to apply for a stability transfer to stay at their current school, rather than being forced to move, though they’d likely forfeit bus transportation to school. That date could change based on a board vote.

    People can look up the stability transfer rules here. About three-quarters of families affected would be eligible for a stability transfer, a higher share than in most years, to address parent concerns.

    The changes would go into effect for the 2026-27 school year.

    Some people in the southwest corner of the county have opposed the changes because of the relationships they say they’ve built at their current schools. Feedback to the school system was largely concerned with stability — with calendar, with community, and with commute.

    The district didn’t propose any changes from its last draft, which included only one proposed change from the initial proposal.

    Many families in southern, western and eastern Wake will be moved to new schools next year, including schools that operate on other calendars. Some families may be eligible to stay at their current school, but would have to forfeit bus transportation.

    During a public hearing last month, several Apex residents asked to be “grandfathered in” at White Oak Elementary or Mills Park Middle, saying they and their children had already established relationships with teachers and other students. Some said it wasn’t practical to apply for stability to transfer to stay at White Oak because they need to use busing to get to school.

    The district held three virtual information sessions and an in-person one at the new Hilltop Needmore Elementary School in Fuquay-Varina — the district’s only new school opening next year.

    Overall, the changes would affect 24 schools. A handful of those schools wouldn’t lose any students but would gain them from other schools.

    The goal is to affect as few families as possible while also addressing crowding needs, school system officials and school board members said. Reassignments used to be much bigger, years ago.

    “The process is vastly improved from the way it used to be,” Board Member Lynn Edmonds said, while also noting that it’s still tough for families who must switch schools.

    The changes

    Families will be reassigned out of Ballentine, Banks Road and West Lake elementary schools to fill Hilltop Needmore Elementary in Fuquay-Varina. Hilltop Needmore would open as a multi-track year-round school in July 2026, meaning it would have four groups of students track in and out of the school at different times of the year — a tactic that increases a school’s capacity and that is often used in the district’s fastest-growing areas.

    The reassignment for Hilltop Needmore will also have a trickle-down effect on other schools. Some students would move from Vance Elementary to fill the open seats at Banks Road Elementary. Students from Middle Creek Elementary would be moved into Oak Grove and West Lake elementary schools.

    Other changes will reduce crowding.

    Some students from Hebert Akins Road Middle and Dillard Drive Middle will move to West Lake Middle, primarily to reduce crowding at Herbert Akins Road. Dillard Drive Middle isn’t overcrowded, officials said, but some of its students’ elementary school siblings are on different calendars that would be more compatible with Herbert Akins Road Middle.

    Some students from crowded Willow Spring High will move to Middle Creek High.

    Several more changes will come to Apex and other western Wake schools.

    Some students from Lufkin Road Middle and Salem Middle will move to Apex Middle, and some students will move from Apex Friendship High to Apex High — both moves are an effort to make the feeder pattern to high schools consistent for Baucom Elementary families.

    Some students will move from the overcrowded White Oak Elementary — which is currently capped to new students — to Turner Creek Elementary.

    Some students from overcrowded Mills Park Elementary will move to Salem Elementary.

    A few eastern Wake schools are also affected.

    Some students from crowded and growing Zebulon Magnet Elementary will move to Carver Elementary.

    Some students from Zebulon Magnet Middle will move to Wendell Magnet Middle, an effort to make feeder patterns more consistent for the schools’ elementary counterparts.

    Changing calendar options

    The school system once again dropped transfer options for people who want to switch to a different calendar. Those transfers are often offered for people whose base school has a year-round calendar but who want a traditional calendar, or vice versa. Students who switch can sometimes be eligible for busing to the new school. The school board, at the request of the district, has been decreasing those options, in part because of busing and capacity challenges.

    The changes approved Tuesday cut three options at two elementary schools — Abbotts Creek and Hodge Magnet. At the middle school level, it gives some students who are proposed to be moved to their calendar application option school the choice to apply to go back to the base school, under the calendar transfer option. For students at Dillard Driver Magnet and Herbert Akins Road who are proposed to be moved to West Lake, they would no longer have a calendar application option.

    The plan also includes one new calendar application school for the White Oak Elementary families who could be reassigned to Turner Creek, giving them a traditional calendar option at Baucom. Families proposed to be reassigned to five other elementary schools would not have a calendar application option under the proposal.

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  • Wake school board approves budget while waiting for state raises

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    The Wake school board approved more than $13 million in adjustments to its more than $2.2 billion budget Tuesday night, 7-0. Board Member Cheryl Caulfield was absent.

    The changes include money for higher-than-expected utility and academic costs, based on nearly equivalent savings so far this year.

    It doesn’t include any new teacher raises because the state hasn’t passed a new budget that includes any.

    It also didn’t include major investments in maintenance and operations, a department that’s struggling to address the smaller and more routine maintenance issues that are higher in number than the bigger issues that are prioritized.

    “We’re spending only three-quarters of what the industry says we need to be spending… to maintain the facilities we manage,” Board Chairman Chris Heagarty said.

    By once again not following the recommendations of its five-year maintenance plan, Heagarty said the plan will now be nine years.

    The lack of a state budget has put on pause some of school districts’ plans for their budgets this year, but not all.

    The Wake County school board already approved more than $18 million in budget cuts for this year in an interim budget passed this summer, including the elimination of 10 digital learning coordinators, some secretarial jobs, some unfilled social worker and counselor positions, and other expenses. It also included raising air conditioning set points by one degree and lowering heating set points by one degree — a measure undertaken during the tight budget of the Great Recession, as well.

    Those moves were in part so the district could afford to open four new schools next year and pay for expected increases to salary and benefits from the state.

    Little increase in maintenance funding

    The years of deferred maintenance spending are because the school board has time and again rejected recommendations for maintenance funding in favor of other hiring and raises, Heagarty said.

    “I don’t think anyone will fault us for money we put into he classrooms, money spent supporting teachers and students, but the working conditions in our buildings also support students,” Heagarty said.

    Other board members on Tuesday urged the district to find ways to address the smaller maintenance issues that are visible every day to students and families but are waiting a month or longer to be addressed, according to district data.

    The district has further prioritized bigger maintenance issues, leading to improvements in fix times for them, but worse fix times for smaller issues. Unlike in recent years, the district has only closed one school so far this year because of an air conditioning issue. That reflect the district’s work but also cooler temperatures putting less stress on HVAC equipment, Superintendent Robert Taylor said.

    “We have to do something different, we have to be more aggressive toward it and change what we’re dealing with here, to keep recruitment up, to keep people coming to the schools,” Board Member Toshiba Rice said.

    Planning without a state budget

    This spring, Wake County Public School System officials estimated more than $60 million in new expenses next year, without increasing any programming, aside from opening the new schools. That was because they expected employee salaries and benefits to go up. When the state increases pay, benefit costs can increase, and individual school systems must raise pay for locally funded employees to match the pay of state-funded employees.

    Wake County commissioners approved giving the school system more than $40 million in additional funding to help cover the expected costs, requiring the district to find things to cut to make up the difference.

    Teachers and many other, but not all, school employees received step increases in a mini budget passed earlier this fall. Those are the pay increases that come with another year of service to state employment, typically totaling less than $1,000.

    Teachers will also pay more come January for the state health plan, which for the first time introduced a system of premiums based on pay. In Wake County, 84% of employees’ premiums went up, and some, especially higher-experienced teachers who aren’t eligible for step increases — will see shrinking take-home pay in January.

    The district wants to use about $13.2 million in unexpected savings so far this year to cover utilities and academic and literacy help for students that largely represents unexpected costs incurred for those programs. For example, a change to federal funding rules is prompting a plan to use $1.8 million for literacy coaches, and a drop in state funding is prompting a plan to use another $1.8 million for career and technical education programs.

    The $13.6 million in unexpected savings could cover the unexpected losses, but it wouldn’t come close to covering the $34.7 million in increased compensation that the board had anticipated from the state. The board expected a 3% increase in base salary for staff from the state budget, but a mini-budget for the state authorized only a step increase for an additional year of experience, rather than changing base pay. The step increase represents a raise for each teacher of less than 1%.

    The school board also planned this spring to increase the salary supplement for educators by 1.5%, which would cost about $2.8 million and amount to additional pay of between $110 and $210 for the entire year for a teacher.

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  • Triangle traffic headaches: What’s being done about them

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    Look anywhere in Triangle, and it won’t take long for you to see the signs of a growing region. Cranes tower over downtown Raleigh and Durham, expanding the skyline. Crews clear another swath of trees to make room for another townhouse development.

    Another sign of the rapid growth: Heavy congestion on the Triangle’s roads.

    We asked our viewers and followers to share their biggest Triangle traffic headaches. You shared many trouble spots:

    • The stop-and-go traffic along Interstate 40 between Raleigh and Durham,
    • the long-delayed widening project on I-440 in west Raleigh,
    • the tangle of traffic that chokes the Durham Freeway near the I-885 and N.C. 147 interchange.

    One spot people mentioned more often than any other was the I-40/U.S. 1 interchange between Raleigh and Cary. Drivers trying to get on or off I-40 West have about 600 feet to weave across heavy traffic.

    “That’s when you [tell] your passenger, ‘Hey, do you see anybody coming? Check all windows,’” said driver Ginia Cooper-Gay, who said it’s a tricky interchange to navigate. “You need a co-pilot!”

    Chris Lukasina is the executive director of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), the group of Triangle-area municipalities making plans for how our region will deal with growth in the decades to come. He says the DOT is going to get rid of that tricky interchange and replace it with a much better design.

    “That will provide some relief for a lot of folks and make getting through that interchange a lot easier,” he said.

    They’re also planning to keep lanes open during construction. It’s great news for drivers, but here’s the catch: It won’t be ready until 2030 at the earliest.

    Lukasina says identifying transportation problems is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out how to pay for it.

    “We have to have a long-range plan, but we also have to have a budget,” he said. “We have to stay within that budget.”

    Future transportation improvement plans

    The NCDOT has hundreds of projects on the books for the Triangle area. They’re spelled out in the State Transportation Improvement Plan, which outlines construction funding and priorities for transportation projects across the state. The state analyzes potential projects and assigns a score to each, weighing safety, congestion and local priorities. A project’s score is the main factor that determines if and when it will get built, but budget limits also affect the scheduling.

    There are some major projects under construction right now that should provide some significant relief.

    The I-440 widening project between Walnut Street and Wade Avenue now is expected to be finished in spring 2026. The last section of N.C. 540 connecting I-40 near Clayton with I-87 in Knightdale should be finished in late 2028. Milazzo says his group also is advocating for improvements to Glenwood Avenue between I-540 and I-440.

    Another big innovation in transportation is under construction in Raleigh. The city describes Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as a “high-capacity bus-based transit system that delivers fast and efficient service.” Dedicated lanes and traffic signal priority will allow buses to run reliably approximately every 15 minutes.

    Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, which advocates for transportation projects on behalf of the business community, calls it “buses resembling trains.”

    “It is a great solution, provides flexibility, also provides that transit priority so people can rely on it,” he said.

    Raleigh’s first BRT corridor is under construction along New Bern Avenue, linking the city’s east side. Other BRT routes will connect with northern, southern and western Raleigh. The city expects the buses to start rolling as early as 2028. Eventually, it will connect with downtown Cary.

    Durham and Chapel Hill also are planning to build a BRT system in the coming years. Milazzo says connecting those systems will provide a flexible solution for people to get around the sprawling region.

    “[BRT would be] at least an alternative for some trips,” he said.

    Lukasina said a commuter rail could be a piece of the puzzle in the future. Wake and Durham counties’ transit plans propose studying commuter rail in the region. That would put passenger cars on existing railroads, shared with freight traffic, focusing frequent service during the weekday commute.

    GoTriangle studied commuter rail in 2023, finding big benefits but also significant challenges in building it within the timeframes and budgets of the counties’ transit plans. Instead, CAMPO is working with the NCDOT to explore ways to enhance passenger rail service that would connect the Triangle’s cities and towns.

    Lukasina says another major upgrade eventually coming to the Triangle the idea of “managed freeways,” using technology to manage traffic flow. It would allow officials to adjust speed limits and lane use dynamically to keep traffic flowing as well as possible.

    “Helping to avoid those bottlenecks or minimize the time we have those bottlenecks out there will really help improve the traffic flow,” Lukasina said.

    It’s just roads that have to be expanded and improved Milazzo says keeping up with the Triangle’s growth means upgrading all forms of transportation. A big focus for the Regional Transportation Alliance is pushing for improvements at RDU. The new runway and expansion of Terminal 2 are major steps to accommodate growing numbers of passengers.

    “Airport expansion never ends, because this market never stops growing,” Milazzo said.

    As the Triangle grows, Milazzo said the business community wants these projects take “less ‘forever.’” He says as frustrating as the Triangle’s highway headaches can be, they are a sign of a healthy region.

    “Having growth is a wonderful thing. It certainly beats the alternative for a market,” he said. “We all would like to see things go faster, but if we work together and keep focused on it, we can get the solutions we want.”

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  • DMV boss tells NC lawmakers wait times are down, but key funding is running low

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    On his sixth-month anniversary of taking over one of the state government’s most troubled agencies, Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Paul Tine came to the legislature Thursday to give an update on how it’s been going.

    Tine painted a rosy picture and provided some statistics to back it up. And lawmakers on the Transportation Oversight Committee appeared mostly pleased with what they heard — a notable change from their testy relationship with Tine’s predecessor Wayne Goodwin.

    Goodwin led the DMV in former Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration before resigning this summer, under increasing pressure from the public and new Gov. Josh Stein, over long lines and other issues.

    Wait times are down nearly an hour since the summer, Tine said:

    • July average wait time: Two hours and 11 minutes
    • October average wait time: One hour and 19 minutes

    Part of that is because the summer is peak season for the DMV, but another part of it is new laws aimed at letting people do more online without needing to go to a DMV, as well as expanded weekend hours and self-service DMV kiosks in a growing number of grocery stores around the state.

    But there’s no new state budget, and Tine cautioned lawmakers that if they want to see those expanded Saturday hours continue into 2026, they need to fund it soon. The money set aside to pay for those extra hours is expected to run out in February or March, he told the committee Thursday.

    “We’d love to keep them open, but we’re going to have to figure that out,” he said.

    To people who still need to go in person, Tine said he needed to publicize two tips:

    1. You don’t need an appointment.
      1. There’s very little reason to show up hours before the office even opens, like many people have been doing, especially as the weather grows colder, he said. Tine said he he doesn’t want people standing around for hours for minimal benefit to themselves.

        “You don’t have to show up early,” Tine said. “People are just creating an extra long wait for themselves by coming in at 5 a.m., 4 a.m., 3 a.m. I mean, if you’ve got to be the first person in and out in the morning — fine. But otherwise, we’re going to get you in the system.”

        The presentation Tine gave on Thursday was essentially the same as the one he gave last week to a different group of state lawmakers. But Thursday offered more chances for members of the state legislature to hear the updates and ask him questions.

        Tine said one of the fixes he’s worked hardest on is improving morale at the agency, which has faced scrutiny for years by the general public, the local media and, most recently, by State Auditor Dave Boliek. The theory is that being able to stop or at least slow down turnover at the already-understaffed agency should help keep up the improvements.

        Delays and staff shortages initially caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have been exacerbated in the five years since by a combination of low pay for DMV workers, an influx of new customers needing to get REAL IDs, and state funding that hasn’t kept pace with North Carolina’s booming population. 

        The Office of the State Auditor released two audits in August that detailed a deteriorating customer experience at the DMV, including increasing wait times caused in part by employee burnout, low staffing and aging technology. North Carolina’s population jumped 30%, but DMV staffing only jumped 10% over the last 15 years, members of the auditor’s office told lawmakers last week.

        Tine has also credited legislative changes with easing the ID-renewal process and workload on the division. And he said the division is working on a request for funding and flexibility with job requisitions.

        State lawmakers approved $1.2 million in funding for the division in August to hire more license examiner positions. More than 60 new positions created by the funding were filled less than a month after the money was approved — a considerable feat, considering the state has had difficulty filling jobs across agencies as it competes for talent with the private sector.

        Hiring a new state employee is typically a months-long process, but Tine said Stein moved resources around inside of state government to fast-track those new hires. There are now dozens more DMV workers across the state because of that, he said, all in place months ahead of schedule.

        “The governor called me and said, ‘You have 30 days to hire all of these new positions,’ which I thought was aggressive,” Tine told lawmakers Thursday. “But I said, ‘Okay, let’s go.’ And he gave me [human resources help] and full support with [the N.C. Department of] Commerce… and then we were able to hire all of those in the first 30 days.”

        About 4.1% of the DMV’s examiner positions are currently vacant, down from 10.9% in April, Tine said. But he reiterated the need for more funding to hire more people, reminding lawmakers that the state has been booming even as the DMV’s budget has actually shrunk in recent years.

        “Funding is going to is a concern of mine for this year,” he said. “We are issuing more licenses. We’re seeing more people. We’re doing more operations. But we still have the same funding that we had before. Actually, less.”

        No one on the committee promised any more money — legislative leaders recently said they don’t plan to pass a new budget at all this year due to political disagreements between Republicans in the House and Senate — but they did express confidence in Tine to keep improvements coming.

        “I need you do a good job, but you’ve exceeded my expectations so far,” the oversight committee chairman, Rep. Phil Iler (R-Brunswick) told Tine Thursday. “I know you’re not done. You’re just getting started, and you really got a good business plan.”

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  • Family wants justice for 5-year-old girl who was beaten to death. Prosecutors say a 10-year-old boy did it

    Family wants justice for 5-year-old girl who was beaten to death. Prosecutors say a 10-year-old boy did it

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    Authorities made two arrests in a months-long WRAL Investigation into the death of a 5-year old-girl in Wake County.

    Investigators said a 10-year-old boy beat the girl to death at the Raleigh home of her half-sister’s paternal grandmother, Shirletta Yolando Moore. It happened while Moore was working, investigators said.

    Moore, 58, is charged with one felony count of negligent child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury and three misdemeanor counts of child abuse. Her brother, Anthony Darrell Moses, 62, faces three misdemeanors for failing to report crimes against a juvenile.

    The counts all surround the death of 5-year-old Tymani Oden and the three other children who were left in the home in July 2022.

    Kaiolonniee Oden is Tymani’s relative on the father’s side of the family.

    “Tymani was a princess in all aspects. Beautiful. Funny,” Oden told WRAL Investigates.

    The little girl’s paternal grandmother, Ketha Oden, is stung by the pain.

    “I want justice for Tymani,” Ketha Oden said. “I want to know why they would do this to my grandbaby.

    “She was a sweet child and enjoyed life and she would never do anything to hurt anybody.”

    At the time of Tymani’s death, her mother Kayakenee Oliver sat in jail on dozens of drug and felony weapons charges. Oliver’s mother, who controlled custody, took Tymani and her 2-year-old half-sister Kalia to a home on Agawam Court in Raleigh. It’s owned by Shirletta Moore, Kalia’s paternal grandmother.

    Though Moses now faces charges in the case, he spoke to WRAL Investigates when we visited the home in September. He told WRAL Investigates that his sister went to work and was gone when Tymani was beaten.

    “They were alone for I’d say about an hour,” Moses said.

    Moses admitted his sister left the girls alone on the night of July 11 along with two other children, the oldest being a 10-year-old boy. He said Moore works three jobs to help support her family. Yet within an hour, emergency crews arrived to find Tymani with critical head injuries.

    “Why would you leave a 10-year-old and little kids in the house with a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old?,” Ketha Oden said. “[There] should be an adult in the house. You don’t leave no kids in the house by themselves.”

    Tymani’s Beaufort family rushed to UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill to find her barely alive.

    “I looked at my 5-year-old cousin, who I seen a week prior to celebrate birthdays,” Kaiolonniee Oden said. “She looked like an alien.”

    According to the autopsy investigative report obtained by WRAL Investigates, the child was apparently assaulted by the 10-year-old boy leaving her badly bruised with serious head trauma and a lacerated liver.

    “They told us she was beat with a belt and they told us she was beat with a broom,” her cousin, Kaiolonniee Oden, said.

    “She was beaten to death like a hate crime” Ketha Oden said.

    Moses said his family saw no signs the boy could carry out such an act, but believes he may have been jealous of Tymani’s birthday attention and sought revenge after she told on him earlier for something he did.

    The killing only deepens the rift between families on Tymani’s mother’s side and her father, Tyquan Oden. He told WRAL Investigates all of this was avoidable.

    “Why take a three-hour drive to them people she’s not kin to?” Tyquan Oden said. “If she would have been with us, this never would have happened.”

    The family on the father’s side also blames social services for allowing Tymani to be put in a dangerous situation. They feel the system failed the little girl.

    “She should have been given to her father, but she was left with her grandmother and that was ok for social services,” Kaiolonniee Oden said.

    Three months after the incident, prosecutors finally made the move, which is less than 24 hours before WRAL Investigates’ story aired. They charged Moore and Moses.

    The news is welcome to the girl’s frustrated family on her father’s side.

    “If a 10-year-old beat this child to death, then an adult needs to be held responsible for that 10-year-old’s actions,” Kaiolonniee Oden said.

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