Public Safety

Deputies and the Department of Social Services were called after a father allegedly left belt marks on his ten-year-old daughter. Michael Preston Smith, 38, of old Lumberton Road, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor child abuse and released on a$1,500 unsecured bond, according to detention center reports. Deputies were called to Columbus Regional May 18 after the victim’s grandmother discovered the girl, 10, was badly bruised. The...

A larceny suspect discovered the hard way that he had picked the wrong neighborhood Sunday when he ended up in the custody of an off-duty Whiteville Police officer.  Victor Parris, 27, is being held under no bond on a charge of attempted larceny. His address was listed as Columbia, S.C. in detention center reports. Deputies were called to the 3300 block of New Britton Highway around 8 a.m....

An early morning wreck in Tabor City claimed the life of a Holly Ridge man. Phillip Ray Grant, 60, crossed the center line and struck a commercial vehicle head-on just before 5 a.m. on May 5. A Tabor City police report showed that Grant was heading east on U.S. 701 when the crash occurred. Grant was driving a 2006 Toyota automobile that collided with a 2024 Freightliner owned...