The
ews
J ournal
Hoke County’s newspaper since 1905
No.41Vol.107
Raeford & Hoke County n.c.
Wednesday, December 19,2012
Not clear who dropped ball in child case
Middle school student found safe with mother after Amber Alert
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
A 12-year-old fromHoke County
who was reported missing last week
was found safe several hours after the
sheriffs office called in an Amber
Alert to help locate him.
Pacen Joyce was found in his
mother’s residence on Secretariat
Court in Raeford the night of
Thursday, December 13, according
to reports.
The child had recently been
removed from the home due to De
partment of Social Services (DSS)
concerns about his mother, Karen
Joyce, being unable to care for him.
Sheriff Hubert Peterkin said.
However, East Hoke Middle
School was never informed that
Joyce was not allowed to pick him
up, Hoke County Schools Public
Information Director Jodie Bryant
said. Joyce reportedly took her son
out of school around 9 a.m. DSS
staff contacted the Sheriffs Office
to report him missing around 4 p.m.,
officials said.
The situation met the criteria for
issuing an Amber Alert because
the child was potentially in danger
while in his mother’s custody, Pe
terkin said.
“DSS had put the child in the care
of someone else. Mom was evaluated
and the evaluation showed that mom
was not able to care for the child,”
he said.
“We understand there was a no
contact order on the daddy so he
couldn’t have the child either,” the
sheriff added.
Deputies began looking for the
child and periodically checked
Joyce’s residence but did not find
anyone at the home, Peterkin said.
Laterintheeveningatelevisionnews
crew from WRAL knocked on the
(See STUDENT, page 5A)
Christmas scenes
Santa made an appearance at the Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas social
last week,and Dillon McPhatter (top left) and Emma Roth rock (above) enjoyed
his company. At left, Melvine Weeks, supervisor at the Raeford Post Office,
shows bags of toys Raeford postal workers purchased for some 40 children
at West Hoke Elementary School. This is the third year the post office has
helped needy children.
Council
member’s
brother
found safe
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Some might call it a Christ
mas miracle.
A phone call Tuesday night
held good news for Raeford
City Council member Shelley
Wilburn. Her brother, miss
ing in the Chatham County
woods with no food for more
than a week and suffering
from a compromised mental
status, was found alive.
Joseph Todd Wilkerson ran
from personnel at Chatham
Hospital where he was being
admitted in the early morning
hours of December 12, his
37th birthday. He escaped into
the hundreds of acres of wood
land surrounding the hospital
property. A Silver Alert was
(See MISSING, page 6A)
Register of Deeds to retire just 2 months after reelection
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Onnie Dudley
Less than two months after being
reelected to another four-year term
in office, Hoke County Register of
Deeds Onnie Dudley announced
plans to retire.
Dudley, a Democratic incumbent
with nine years in office as the Reg
ister of Deeds, ran unopposed in the
November General Election. She
was sworn into office December 1.
Dudley said health issues con
vinced her to retire earlier than she
had previously planned. By Septem
ber she had decided that December
would be her last month on the job,
she said.
“It’s a little bit of both my age and
plus Tm having problems with my
joints,” she said.
The Hoke County Board of
Commissioners will appoint a new
Register of Deeds to fill the office
until the 2014 elections, when voters
will elect a candidate to the position.
Dudley said she plans to recommend
Camille Hurst to fill the position.
Hurst has worked in the Register
of Deeds office for about 10 years,
she said.
Although Board of Elections Di
rector Caroline Shook said she only
recently became aware of Dudley’s
plan to retire, even had she known
about Dudley’s decision before the
election and if Dudley had wanted to
pull her name from the ballot at that
point, it may have been too late to
remove it. The office started mailing
out absentee ballots on September
10, Shook said.
Word began spreading about
Dudley’s retirement through a flyer
announcing a retirement celebration
in her honor set for December 19.
Dudley said she had originally been
planning to retire in 2013.
Dudley said she plans to spend
her retirementdoing volunteerwork,
including visiting nursing homes to
read to the residents. However, her
knee has been giving her trouble,
she noted.
(See REGISTER, page 6A)
Hoke schools address security, review safety procedures
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
After the school shoot
ing in Connecticut that left
20 children and six adults
dead, Hoke County Schools
administrators met Monday
to discuss safety plans and
procedures already in place
to keep Hoke students safe.
“Our thoughts and prayers
are with the victims and the
families of the victims of the
tragedy, and it was really a
moment for us to reflect on our
safety plans and procedures
that are already in place and
look over that and reinforce
what we had in place to make
sure our students and our
staff are safe in our schools,”
Hoke County Schools Public
Information Director Jodie
Bryant said.
Over the last several years,
the school system has worked
to prepare and put in place
emergency response proce
dures to fit each school’s spe
cific needs. Student Services
Director Peggy Owens said.
“We have a policy to ad
dress school safety, and each
of those plans, within our
crisis plan, we have different
areas that are addressed,”
she said.
After word of the shooting
hit the news, school adminis
trators revived the conversa
tion about school safety.
(See SECURITY, page 6A)
This Week
Calendar
2B
Classifieds
5B
Deaths
3A
Editorials
2A
Legals
3-4B
Sports
5A
Worship
2B
By Ken MacDonald
I had made my way down the length
of the plane in search of 19A—at least
it was going to be a window seat—and
soon discovered it was in the very last
row, the one in front of the lavatory,
where sometimes people fall in your
lap as they wait for a vacancy. As I
reached the seat, a young girl sitting
across the aisle glanced up and smiled,
and something in her face told me it
was her first time flying.
I took my seat and began my ritual
on departure—flipping through pho
tos on the iPhone, reliving the experi
ence I was leaving behind.
I was leaving Texas. A few Raeford
folks joined a few Texas and Mexico
folks to hold Christmas parties for
upwards of500children in three Mexi
can neighborhoods—colonias, where
there’s no running water, few roads and
certainly no Christmas presents. We’d
also taken some packages with three
weeks worth of food to the first 30 of
250 families. And we’d been reunited
with friends we’ve known from many
previous such trips.
(See OTHER STUEE, page 6A)
100 years old
Callie Love Buie, center, celebrated her 100th birthday this weekend with family
and friends during a party in her honor at Conference B Headquarters.