ABC11 Eyewitness News - Eyewitness News at 11pm - January 5, 2026

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

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Right now, live coverage from your local news leader, preparing you for tomorrow, starting tonight, and your first alert forecast. Here's what's happening where you live. This is ABC 11 eyewitness news. Tonight at 11 new questions about the criminal history of Ryan Camacho, the man charged with killing Raleigh school teacher Zoe Welsh, why people who know and love her are raising concerns about the number of times he was arrested and released, whether Welsh's senseless killing could have been prevented. Thanks so much for joining us here for the news at 11. I'm Lauren Johnson. Hi, everyone. I'm Steve Daniels.

36-year-old Ryan Camacho faced a Wake County judge today on those charges that he broke into the home of Ravenscroft school teacher Zoe Welsh on Saturday morning and murder her. Our research reveals Camacho has had more than two dozen run-ins with the law. Tonight we're hearing from one man who says Camacho terrorized he and his family when they lived next door to each other over a decade ago and even after they relocated to escape the threats and violence. Tom George explains why that man and many others believe the murder of Zoe Welsh is an example of the justice system failing. Well, Ryan Camacho now denied Bond, accused of murder and breaking and entering in the death of Zoe Welsh. But for one Raleigh man who says he had

terrifying run-ins with Camacho nearly a decade ago, he wonders if her death could have been prevented. If you were to be convicted of murder, you could receive life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. As Ryan Camacho faced a judge, Today, West Phillips from Raleigh says his heart sank, learning the same man who he says struck fear into his family was now accused of murder. It seems like a complete failure of our institutions. Phillips said he once lived next door to Camacho and his mom in five points. He believes Camacho may have been annoyed with his two-year-old being loud.

Phillips says he found his car smashed up. I said, did you do this to my car? He immediately came out of his house and came to me in like a confrontational state, like with his fists cocked, and he, like, something he wanted to happen. He says from there he would get angry stares and felt unsafe. Things got so bad. He says his family moved to Mordecai, and he says another time, Camacho still managed to find him there.

His car vandalized another time. This time, he decided to follow him in his car. And so I was, while I called the police, I kind of tried to keep my eyes on him in the car, and I was recording a video. And he saw me, stopped. in the middle of the street, returned to my car, and got closer and closer and tried to pull me out of my car. He says they got a temporary protective order but weren't able to get a permanent one after he couldn't be tracked down for the summons. Camacho eventually pleaded guilty in a similar case and was ordered not to have contact with Phillips at the time.

It's not some random guy just off the street. It's someone with a history of red flags. Camacho has a history of two dozen arrests, a conviction for escaping prison in 2021, And just recently, another breaking and entering case where he was ruled incompetent to continue. That's when prosecutors then tried to have him involuntarily committed, but a judge denied it, something district attorney Lauren Freeman disagrees with. Yeah, this is, I think, what a lot of people in the court system would tell you is that we routinely run into these situations where, you know, the need of somebody from a mental health standpoint, outstrips what the system is able to do at that point in time for them.

And so, you know, our position was he should have been involuntarily committed. That's not our ultimate decision to make. And so, unfortunately, he was released. Meanwhile, Wes will always wonder what if. They were not taken seriously through time. They were not taken seriously. And here we are. Now, Freeman says she believes more needs to be done to focus on mental health.

But she also says there are limits to what courts can do. But she also says with the new Irina's law, she hopes it'll be able to streamline that process so courts can take into consideration mental health. health history as they figure out how to move forward. In the meantime, she says so far they have not decided on whether they will be seeking the death penalty in this case in Raleigh. Tom, George, ABC 11, I would disnews. Tom, thank you.

And Zoe Welsh was killed inside her home near Wade Avenue and St. Mary Street in a neighborhood on Clay Street. And according to police, she called for help as that brutal attack was happening. And tonight we're hearing exactly what dispatchers heard and what responding officers saw when they arrived there to that scene. Jimmy's Price is live on Clay Street where Welsh called for help on Saturday. Meese, lay out what you're learning from listening to those recorded calls. Hi, Lauren.

Certainly this neighborhood's still in shock and what happened inside this home just behind me from people getting their groceries to simply walking their dogs. They are all concerned and wanting to know why and how all of this happened. And while we can't really explain the why we are learning what happened inside. Raleigh school teacher Zoe Welsh was killed by an intruder inside her home on Clay Street. She called for help and was on the phone with dispatch as the intruder came into her home. According to the database of police radio traffic reviewed by our news gathering partners, the news and observer we are learning more about those terrifying moments. Police were dispatched at 632.

Southwich District will read the burglary in progress. Two minutes later, A dispatcher could be heard saying. A complaint was screaming, but I'm silent now. The unit's responding, here's a lot of background noise. No one's answering or answering or talking on the phone. Here's a lot of background noise. Let me know when the first unit gets on saying, I'll hold the channel.

The first unit arrived at 638 and the officer noticed a broken window. 611 on scene. Phone windows smashed. Officers quickly saw that Zoe was critically injured. Riley, I got a female down. She's got severe hemorrhage to the left side of her head. Zoe was rushed to the hospital where she died from her injuries. It's really sad what happened.

My thoughts got to the family of the lady that, you know, lost her life. Her death sparked heartbreak, fear, and concern. Concern that the suspect Ryan Camacho accused of killing Zoe could be free to walk the streets again, based on past convictions. We stopped by Camacho's own neighborhood in Five Points, where neighbors tell us his mom still lives there. They were concerned he would come back. Kind of worried because I know that he was recently in court for breaking, entering again, and then they let him off because he, you know, wasn't able to stand trial for that. So I'm hoping that justice is served on this one swiftly and correctly.

In this case, Camacho was denied bond. He remains in jail. His next court appearance, January 26th. Meanwhile, there continues to be an outpour. of support for Zoe Walsh's family. We're live in Raleigh, James Price, ABC 11, eyewitness news. And we'll continue to follow this case closely. Janice, thank you.

The deposed president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, appeared in a New York City courtroom today, pleading not guilty to four felony drug and weapons charges, as we're learning more about the role of Fort Bragg-based special operation soldiers in that mission in Caracas. Maduro has long been accused of human rights violations in Venezuela, ranging from the targeting of political opponents to the use of excessive force. He's facing many charges here in the U.S., including narco-terrorism.

And here in the triangle, Carlos Benucci is one of an estimated 8 million Venezuelans who left their home country under the rule of Nicolas Maduro. The American Immigration Council says Venezuela was the second largest country of origin for resettled refugees here in North Carolina last year. Benucci left Venezuela five years ago. He was the national youth coordinator for Vente Venezuela, the opposition party. Basically, all my party mates, my colleagues are in prison. My real desire is return to Venezuela and rebuild our country.

The operation to remove Maduro from power, which took place without congressional approval, was organized by the Army's Delta Force, which is headquartered at Fort Bragg, and we now know they built an exact replica of Maduro's compound there in Venezuela, and they practiced that raid for months before arriving in Caracas late on Friday night. We have new details in an ongoing I-Team investigation focused on a Durham Foundation accused of not paying its employees all across the triangle. The North Carolina Department of Labor filed a motion in court today to try to force the Courtney Jordan Foundation, CJF America, to provide the pay records after the state agency received more than 30 complaints from former employees about not getting paid. If CJF fails to produce the documents, the Labor Department is requesting the employer be held in civil contempt for failure to comply. You can watch that full report from ITM troubleshooter Diane Wilson on our website, ABC11.com.

Now to some new details in Wake County on the upcoming trial of accused Headingham mass shooter Austin Thompson and the effort by his attorneys to keep evidence out of view from the jury. Today, his defense attorneys filed six new motions ahead of next month's trial. Thompson is accused of killing five people during that shooting spree back in 2022. His trial is scheduled to begin in less than a month and today was the deadline for both sides to file motions. Defense lawyers asked the judge to restrict certain cell phone. and computer data. Thompson's lawyers say much of the evidence prosecutors want to use is either extremely old or undated and there's a serious danger of looking at anyone's phone search history with a retrospective view and finding evidence to support a theory that's convenient.

New at 11, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help to identify these two people who were accused of stealing playground materials from Faymont Baptist Church in Fayetteville. The alleged incidents happened on December 5th of last year and January 1st of this year. If you have any information about the suspect's identities, or the investigation, you're being asked to contact the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office property crimes unit. So to come here on eyewitness news, Governor Stein says he's optimistic state lawmakers will come to the table and negotiate with him on a new state budget when they return to Raleigh next week. You'll see his message to Republicans about the urgency of

reaching a new deal. Plus the local medical community is reacting to a major announcement about Lagovi's new weight loss pills, which will be made right here in the triangle. And Don, I think we need a reality check. Is this really the first week of January? No. It's going to feel more like March out there. We've got some very warm temperatures moving in. Now, tonight's chilly, but we'll see those numbers going up over the next couple of days. We'll talk about that. And a first alert to one little chance for rain in the seven-day forecast next.

Next week, state lawmakers return to Raleigh, and the pressure is on for them to pass a new state budget. North Carolina remains the only state in the country without one. Governor Josh Stein today speaking with eyewitness news during an event about strengthening the state's work about what he's hoping to see when the session begins on Monday. But I'm an optimist, and so I think they should have one next week. I think they should have one last year. So I'm going to continue to be optimistic. I'm at the table ready to sit with the leadership of the Senate and the House

to try to get us to a place where we have a budget that pays our law enforcement a good wage, that pays our teachers a good salary, that invests in our health care system to ensure that in rural North Carolina, we have hospitals. Republican Senator Eddie Settle, who was standing with Stein during the press event, joked with him about there being a zero chance of the budget getting passed next week. The head of the State Department of Labor says the backlog of elevator inspections in North Carolina has now been completely cleared. Before Labor Commissioner Luke Farley took office in early 2025, the backlog had reached a peak of 20%, meaning as many as one out of every five elevators was not inspected every year. Commissioner Farley directed the department to conduct a top-to-bottom review of its internal operation.

And thanks to some targeted improvements, the department, they say, was able to dramatically increase inspection efficiency, getting them to the highest level of compliance in the Department of Labor history. Today, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk announced popular weight loss drug Wagovi is now available by prescription in pill form. The company says that new pill will be made from start to finish right here in the triangle. The process begins at their facility in Clayton where the drug is formed into pills and it's later packaged at their site in Durham. It will be the first FDA approved GLP1 drug available. in pill form and will be cheaper than the injectable version. Doctors say it could improve access to the drug. Some patients just can't tolerate the injections because of injections, like local reactions.

So having pill form is a wonderful option. And currently the highest pill form that's about to be released will be about $50 cheaper. than the injectable form of Wigovi. And that new pill is now available by prescription. Parents across the country are getting some new vaccine recommendations for their kids. The Department of Health and Human Services in Washington has some upcoming guidance that is expected to keep many recommendations intact as they are now. And that includes for diseases like measles, polio, chicken pots, and HPV.

But it's cutting recommendations for RSV, meningitis, and hepatitis, accepting kids who are at higher risk. The policy brings our country closer in how some other developed countries like Denmark handle vaccines. And it comes after the new director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research gave a presentation about the Danish vaccination schedule. Some people are worried fewer vaccinations could lead to more preventable infections and kids. All right. You mentioned it earlier, Steve. It's January, but it does not feel like it outside. It is a little chilly tonight, but a warm up this week. We've got some 70s, Don is talking about in the days ahead.

Time to make some outdoor plans. Yeah, and even when the colder weather moves back in, it's just typical weather for this time of year. We're not seeing any bitter cold in the 7-day. Let's show it to you right now. We're in the 60s. Tomorrow, 70s or near 70, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, then Sunday, Monday back into the colder air as we get down around 50. Some of those overnight lows, though, could go below freezing. We'll talk about that in just a bit.

Good evening to you. Let's take a live look. First alert, Doppler net tonight, scanning the skies dry across our part of the Carolinas. We'll head into downtown Durham. A couple of flights lining up for RDU out there. 40 degrees right now, mostly cloudy and winds are calm. Let's talk about what we're seeing as far as the numbers from Manny Oda Murphy tonight, 44 down at the coast, 41 in Greenville right now down at ECU, 40 in Raleigh, 42 in the triad, 45 out in Charlotte. And look at Boone, just 34.

That's probably the coldest spot in the area tonight, but that's up at altitude. Overnight, we'll see those temperatures down into the 40s and 30s. 37 Roxburgh, 35 Roanoke Rapids, 40 tonight in Raleigh, 42 in Fayetteville. Normal is 32, so above average, and that sunrise happens 726 tomorrow. Satellite radar composite shows the clouds working through, but we're just so dry in the lower part of the atmosphere. We're not seeing any precipitation with these clouds. Clouds extend all the way back into the Midwest tonight. They're not putting down any precipitation out there either, and we will stay dry.

Now the clouds stay with us and actually could take it up in a few spots, maybe a little bit of patchy fog to wake up to in the morning. Not widespread. Most of you won't see any, but you may start with a little bit of fog in the rural areas. As we go into the afternoon, sun will end out, start to break through the clouds, and the big story will be the southwest winds. They'll be pulling that warmer air in, and that's what pushes us up to 60 degrees. Skies will clear tomorrow night, but the warm air is in place, so we won't get cold. overnight lows in the upper 40s. Again, we should be around freezing. And then on Wednesday, we'll recover to almost 70 degrees. We've got a cold front to the north that will press close to us. It's going to stay north on Wednesday. Wednesday's really the pick day of the week. Now, as we go into Thursday, you will see this front trying to push through, but it really falls apart. It only pushes us down a couple of degrees. And if we look out to the west of us, yes, there's some rain, but there's lots of warm air out there. And that's what works in as we head through Thursday into Friday. Tomorrow in Raleigh expects 64 for the high. Durham will top out at 62. Fayetteville, 66. We look at what's happening as far as temperatures across the region. 62. Tomorrow, Wendell and Garner, 61 in Carborough, 60 in Bahama. You'll top 64 down at Port Bragg. 64 in Golsborough. 62 in Sanford. We'll go north where you'll hit the 60s from Henderson to Roan O'Crabb. It's 62. Rocky Mount, 61 in Wake Forest. First alert, seven-day forecast, powered by Accum. weather. Showing temperatures back to 70 on Wednesday, Thursday, 68. Friday, a lot of clouds,

more humidity, 71, 71 on Saturday. Then that colder air works in. We get more typical temperatures Monday of next week, 50s. But even the long-range forecast after next Monday pushed those temperatures back into the upper 50s. So just not seeing that bitter cold January air we're used to, at least in the next seven days. And we're still stuck on, you showing us the planes lining up from the Durham camp for the RDU airport. We've never seen that. that before. Yeah, you can see it some nights when they're coming in. You'll seem kind of curving down through and there were a couple out there tonight. Keep an eye on. Your traffic controller for there you. Don, thank you. Still ahead, a special honor for a Durham organization that has helped

underserved youth in the Bull City for a quarter of a century. How Mayor Leo Williams is celebrating the group's contributions to the community. New tonight of Proclamation in Durham honoring the 25th anniversary of the Tri-Coalition or together for resilient youth. Yeah, that group helps address opioid and alcohol, misuse and violence among young people in the Bull City. The CEO and founder, Dr. Wanda Boone, handing out pamphlets to the city council members, laying out their mission, which she says really comes down to one simple message of love. When people are loved, regardless of their adverse experiences, they can achieve great

things. And we will do this for 25 plus 25. plus 25 more years. As part of the proclamation, Mayor Leo Williams declared today the 25th anniversary of Together for Resilient Youth Day. The Love Durham campaign is back for a second year. The campaign invites people to show small businesses love by shopping local. From now through February 28th, residents and visitors are encouraged to explore,

shop, dine, and connect with more than 100 participating businesses across the county. This year, you can complete the Love Durham Challenge through an app which allows participants to earn prizes at participating businesses and events all across Dura. An indoor golf company that's based in Utah is expanding into North Carolina with two triangle locations beginning with one in Chapel Hill. The back nine golf franchise location has three semi-private full golf swing simulators helping people improve by tracking swing speed and ball spin and distance and a few of the available golf courses in the simulator include

Pinehurst, Pebble Beach and Beth Page on Long Island. The back nine golf grand opening weekend begins with a ribbon cutting at 4 p.m. on Friday. in the Elliott Square Shopping Center, and then on Saturday morning you can try the simulators and see the rest of the operation there in Chapel Hill. We're going to be. We're going to be able to be. Bhophaar We're going to be. We're going to be able to be.

I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be. We're going to be able to be. . I don't know. We're going to be. Thank you. And thank you at home for watching.

That's going to do it for us here tonight. Remember the news is always on at ABC11.com. Jimmy Kimmel's on the way next. And Lauren and I are hoping to see you back here tomorrow night at 11 o'clock. Good night. PC-11 eyewitness news is sponsored by Capitol Chevrolet. Together, let's drive. Shop capital Chevrolet.com.