Public Safety

The man who admitted setting multiple fires along U.S. 74 earlier this year is back in jail. Jermey Lynn Hayes, 42, is being held in the Columbus County Detention Center under $50,000 secured bond. He is charged with violating parole, according to court records. Hayes pleaded guilty in Columbus County Superior court to three counts of setting grass or woodsfires. As part of his sentencing, he was given...

One person died in a Sunday afternoon crash in North Whiteville. Patricia Best McKenzie, 80, of Bladenboro was a passenger in a Buick Enclave that turned into the path of another vehicle, according to Sgt. J. Morton of the N.C. Highway Patrol. Trooper Z. Faulk reported that the Enclave, operated by Avay Marie McKenzie of Durham, was headed north on Bill Hooks Road just after 6 p.m. Carl...

A local woman best known for her love of local history and family trees is trying to find a man who was kidnapped in 1988. Joanna Phillips was searching for the identity of a man whose remains were found in 1991 when she discovered the curious case of Joseph Leon Burris. Burris, 25, was forcibly taken from his home near Chadbourn on Nov. 20, 1988, and has never...