Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / April 2, 1981, edition 1 / Page 1
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The News Record ? ? ? * 4 * SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY 80th Year No. 14 PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N.C. THURSDAY, April 2, 1981 15c Per Copy Two Women Charged With Murder Two Dead From Drinking Methadone, Alcohol By NICHOLAS HANCOCK Editor Two men are dead and two Marshall women are charged with murder as the result of a drug related "drinking session" which took place at a Marshall home Thursday night, Sheriff E.Y. Ponder said Saturday. James D. Staggs, 42, of Taylor, Mich., and Scott Duncan, 19, of Walnut died Thursday night and early Friday morning apparently from mix ing the narcotic drug methadone with alcohol. Autopsies performed on the bodies of the two men showed evidence of methadone, the sheriff said. Ponder said the medical examiner, Dr. Bates Henderson, attributed death to the swelling of the brain and liver as the result of drug ingestion. Mrs. Joe Gosnell, 22, and Robbie Gay Banks, 22, both of Route 2, Marshall, have been charged with murder in the incident, Ponder said. A preliminary hearing on the charges was schedul ed for 2 p.m. Monday in Superior Court in Boone. Two other men involved in the incident were taken to Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville for treatment on Friday. Michael Thomas, 28, of Marshall, and James Adams, 28, of Wyandotte, Mich., were treated for ingesting methadone and alcohol. Thomas was taken back to the hospital for further outpatient treatment on Saturday, Ponder said. The sheriff's department first learned of the incident when Ponder received a telephone call at 8:50 a.m. Friday morning concerning a dead man in a mobile home near Walnut. Upon arriving at the scene, Ponder said he found himself at the same home he had visited the night before to deliver a legal paper. Ponder said no one was home Thursday night, but Friday morning he found Staggs dead, sitting in a chair. Ponder said there was evidence that Staggs had vomited a red substance prior to death, a substance which appeared to be blood upon first examination but later proved to be methadone. Returning to his office, Ponder said he receiv ed another call at 10:40 a.m. Friday about a "sick boy" at the mobile home of Joe Gosnell near Davis Chapel Church just off Highway 25-70 in Marshall. The sheriff and Marshall Ambulance Service personnel found Duncan unconscious in the Gosnell home. Duncan was taken immediately to the Marshall-Walnut Medical Center where he was reported dead on arrival. Thomas and Adams were also at the Gosnell home when Ponder arrived to investigate the call concerning Duncan. Ponder said bottles of liquid methadone were found in the home. Further investigation revealed that Staggs and Duncan had been at the Gosnell house on Thursday night and had consumed methadone and alcohol there. Mrs. Joe Gosnell was taken into custody and placed in the Marshall jail. The Banks woman was arrested after she was taken to the hospital for treatment for drug ingestion. Bellamy Will Represent N.C. At National Conference Sarawill Bellamy of the Madison County Department of Social Services has been ?elected to represent all N.C. child protective services workers at the Fifth National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect in Milwaukee, Wis. on April 5-8. Gov. Jim Hunt made the an nouncement of Bellamy's : ejection by the N.C. Social services Association last week when he proclaimed the week of April 5-10 as "Child Protec tive Services Worker Recogni tion Week" in North Carolina to pay tribute to the Social Ser vice workers. "Social workers providing protective services for children have certainly been and are continuing to be called on to perform yeoman service They are on call 24 hours per day. Many of them have had a significant increase in their caseload," said Page Shelton, supervisor of the Protective Services for Children Unit in . the Division of Social Services of the N.C. Department of Human Resources. He indicated that they have a very difficult job and are directly involved in some very sad situations regarding the maltreatment of children by their troubled parents or other adults. 'The major objective of pro tective services workers across the state is the protec tion of children. Every worker is hopeful that the abused or neglected children can remain in their own homes while they arrange for services and pro vide counseling to the parents so they can become adequate parents. However, it is necessary for some children to be removed from their homes by court order and placed in foster homes to ensure their safety and well-being while the workers try to help the parents,'' be said. During fiscal year 1979-80, these social workers in vestigated 25,000 suspected cases of child abuse and neglect reported to county social services departments Sara will Bellamy as required by law. After these investigations, it was determined that protective services were needed for 11,000 of these children. The number of children identified as victims of abuse and neglect represented a 27 percent increase over the previous year. On the Inside . . . Tim Morrissey Espouses On Horse Sense And Shakespeare. See Story On Page 3. Public Meetings The Madison County Board of Commis sioners will hold its regular April meeting on Friday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the cour troom at the Madison County Courthouse. The Madison County Board of Educa tion will conduct a regular meeting Mon day, April 6 at 10:30 a.m. in the courtroom or school superintendent's office in the Madison County Courthouse. The Town of Marshall Board of Aldermen will meet Monday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall. The Mars Hill Town Council will meet Monday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the Mars Hill Town Hall. Family's Prayers Are Answered As Daughter Regains Sight After 11 Years By NICHOLAS HANCOCK Editor "I saw the light, I saw the light! / No more darkness, No more night. / Now I'm so hap py, no sorrow in sight. / Praise the Lord, I saw the light!'" The words of the hymn aptly fit the feelings and cir ctaistances surrounding the life of Teresa Kay Underhill, S3, of Shelton Laurel. On March 16, Kay discovered sight was return ing to her right eye after 11 years of total blindness in it, and vision in her left eye which was diagnoaed as legal ly blind has improved Significantly "It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life," said Mrs. Mildred Underhill, Kay's mother. "You hear about these things [ to other people, but it happens to you. It's It s truly the work of results and pointed out to the nurse that Kay had had no light preception in her right eye for the past 11 years. A check of Kay's medical chart .confirmed Mrs. Underbill's statement, and the nurse quickly summoned Killian to examine the young lady. Killian held a small light in various positions in a hallway and asked Kay to follow its movement. The doc tor concluded from the test with the light and from having her count his fingers that she did have some visual acuity in her right eye. "Before that examination, she had no light perception in that eye as far as we could tell," Killian said. "And, the vision in the left eye, which we have listed as 20/300 is better than she did have." Killian said Kay's condition was a case at optic atrophy, and he said he would be hesi tant to call the improvement in ber sight a miracle since there have been other known narve fibers have been left Kay's sight and medical problems began in 1968 when a malignant tumor was discovered on one of her optic nerves. An operation in Nashville, Tenn., revealed to Kay's doctors that the tumor was cancerous, and according to Mrs. Underhill, "the doc tors told us Kay would have died on the operating table had they tried to remove the tumor." The Nashville doctors put Kay into cobalt treatment for the tumor, but its previous growth had effected the func tion of her pituitary glartd as well as her sight. Kay's fight with the tumor waa a difficult one. Her mother said the doctors called the family to the hoapital three different times expecting the young girl to die. They told us Kay would an ty live for a few yean," Mrs. Underhill said. After Kay's cobalt treatment* in Nashville, the Underbills moved to for a few years where 1 under the care of. . W{* ?' < ftMnbrN-NMn* Kay Underbill third or fourth Rrade levrt, Mrs Underbill *a?d In 1 m, doctor* performed# brain aean on Kay t< neck m the tumor and, a ? B It Mra. | there was no i 5". cSITXck SrSJ! (Continued qn Page I) ? ? - 4 XI ' Biologist Asks Help In Search For Rare Fish Fishermen who drop their lines into the French Broad River in Madison County have the opportunity to help further the cause of biology if they reel in a rare or unusual fish. Professor of biology. Ed ward F. Menhinick of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is working on a book of the freshwater fishes of North Carolina. He his ex amined published information and records of collections made by the Inland Fisheries Division of the state and by various universities and has found twelve species of fish which occur in North Carolina (or which may occur in North Carolina based upon their distribution in Tennessee) and are found ONLY in the Lower French Broad River. Menhinick says that "most of these species are found in the main channel of the French Broad or in the mouths of larger tributaries and are very difficult to collect Fishermen using trout lines or fishing poles are more likely to take them than are biologists." The professor is particular ly interested in information on five species of which there are no verified records for the state. The first of the rare five is the sturgeon. According to Professor Menhinick "there is a published record of eight sturgeons taken at Hot Spr ings on Oct. 8, 1945 by a Mr. West." The professor does not know whether these were lake sturgeons or shovelnose sturgeons as no further infor See Illustrations On Page 3. mat ion was located. He adds that "any sturgeon taken from the French Broad (or any other river that flows into Ten nessee ) would be very impor tant for the records." Sturgeon have five rows of bony plates on the body, a flat triangular snout with four large feelers or barbels, and a shark-like tail. The next fish of interest is the spoonbill or paddlefish. There have been no records of this shark-like fish with a canoe paddle-shaped nose since 1908 in the French Broad. It is two to three feet long. The skipjack herring has never been reported from the state but has been taken about twenty miles below the border in Tennessee. This flat silvery fish resembles a shad but the last filament of the dorsal fin on the back is NOT unusually long. Another type that has never been reported in the state is the blue sucker. It resembles the carpsucker and the buffalo by having a sucker-like mouth and a long dorsal fin, but is much narrower than they are. The blue sucker has more than 50 scale rows along the body whereas carpsuckers and buf falos have less than 45. The last river dweller that Professor Menhinick is in terested in is the Ohio lam prey. He says that it occurs in the French Broad of Ten nessee several miles below North Carolina but there are no North Carolina records. This eel-like fish is parasitic on other fishes as an adult and leaves a circular wound on their sides which is about a half inch in diameter Any fishes with such wounds would be strong evidence of the oc currence of the Ohio Lamprey in this state. "In this case," says Mehinick, "either the injured fish or just the section of the body containing the wound should be preserved." Harold Anderson of the Alpine Court in Hot Springs has volunteered to preserve specimens in his freezer. Any fishermen taking any of the described species are re quested to take them to Mr. Anderson in Hot Springs. If they are too large to fit conve niently into the freezer, just the head of the fish will do. A good photo might be useful but specimens are preferred. Concerning the importance of this study Professor Menhinick says, "evidence of the presence of these unusual fishes will emphasize the uni queness of the French Broad River, and will provide addi tional cause to reduce pollu tion of this fine river." Professor Menhinick may be contacted at the following address: Department of Biology, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, UNCC Station, Charlotte, N.C. 28223 Hendon Calls For Task Force WASHINGTON - Con- 1 gressman Bill Hendon called today for the creation of a bipartisan congressional 1 panel to investigate America's defense readiness. Hendon joined a number of other congressmen Friday in cosponsoring legislation that would establish a 30-member Hunt At Open House Wayne llcDevitt, Director of the Governor s Western Of fice announced today that Gov. Jim Hunt will be in atten dance when the Western Of fice of the Governor holds an Open House on April 3, from 4 p.m until is p.m. "The intent of the Open House. McDevitt said, is to familiarise area residents with the Office, giving them an opportunity to me<?t our of ftce staff and to learn of our go;)ls for North < "Joint Select Committee on Defense Readiness and Mobilization Capability." The committee would be made up of key Houk and Senate members charged with "conducting a tall and com plete investigation into the kind and extent of threats to our national security and the quality and quantity of man power, material, transporta tion and other mourca* need ed to meet these threats," ac
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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