Public Safety

Warrants say inmates attempted jailbreak at Detention Center. A suspected murder, along with a statutory rape defendant and another felon allegedly tried to escape the Columbus County Detention Center Thursday, according to warrants. None of the three made it out of the facility. The three allegedly committed what is called a “lock pop,” disabling the locking mechanism and opening the door of a cell. Anthony Wade Lamb, 33;...

Less than four days after two men died in a head-on crash near Bolton, the county’s ninth road death occurred near Chadbourn Sunday. Josh Eli Thorp, 40, of China Grove Church Road, was killed when he and Heather Pennington were ejected in the crash, First Sgt. Andrew Pait of the Highway Patrol reported.  Thorp was traveling east on China Grove when his 2005 Nissan went off the right...

The head-on collision that killed two men near Bolton Thursday was the third time in three years that the Saint Patrick’s Day week was marred by highway fatalities. Ryan Patrick Young, 38, and John Douglas Suelter, 80, died at the scene of the crash on N.C. 211 near Bolton. The Highway Patrol reported that Young crossed the centerline while heading south and collided head-on with the northbound Suelter. ...