Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 3-year-old tot girl body found in creek, just obtained 9-1-1 call, and sorority girl found dead, new charge

Episode Date: March 2, 2018

Earl Kimrey could face the death penalty if convicted of murdering little Mariah Woods. Prosecutors plan to pursue capital punishment against the North Carolina man. Nancy Grace stays on the case with lawyer Troy Slaten, psychologist Caryn Stark, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan, & Jacksonville Daily News reporter Mike McHugh. The opioid epidemic has hit South Carolina hard, but the state is fighting back by going after people who supply drugs that result in deaths. Nancy looks at the case against  Anthony “A.J.” Hunt who allegedly gave a University of South Carolina coed the drugs that killed her. She is joined by Dr. William Morrone, forensics expert George Schiro, and reporter Larry Meagher.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. The girl was last seen by her mother at her home in Onslow County. The mother tells me she last saw her daughter in the home at around 11 p.m. when she checked on her. This is my world. This is my angel. She said her boyfriend saw the toddler around midnight when he got up, and she says he told her to go back to bed. Remains believed to be the little girl were discovered along a highway. Now there's an arrest. 32-year-old Earl Kemery, Mariah's mother's boyfriend, no one is charged with causing her death. Kemery's charges only include concealing a death and obstruction of justice. More charges likely to follow and maybe others charged.

We are not ruling anything out. I will never forget the search for little Mariah Woods, who apparently goes missing from her home as her mom and boyfriend are asleep. The three-year-old was nowhere to be found. In the last hours, we obtain the 911 call. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She always know where to be found. We would look everywhere in our house and have our yard and our little girl. A little girl. She's missing. Okay. How is she? She's three years old. Okay, so let me get some information from you. Okay. Yes, ma'am. All right. So when is The last time you've seen her

with a bed last night, everyone's ever went to bed at the same time. And what time is that? Sir? Maybe eight o'clock. 8 30. All right. Let's get this information. And you looked in the bedroom, under the bed and everywhere, sir? Everyone's closets, under, everywhere. We went to the house, two to three cops. You're in the yard. It's not like her to do it to God at all. Not in the middle of the night or in the morning by herself. Yes. And I know she has a physical, medical, a medical condition we need

to be aware of. She has muscular dystrophy.'s it. Otherwise, she's perfectly able. Okay. Joining me right now, in addition to Joe Scott Morgan of Jacksonville State University, Karen Stark, New York psychologist, and renowned L.A. defense attorney Troy Slayton, is investigative reporter with the Jacksonville Daily News, Mike McHugh. Mike, tell me the latest first. Thank you for being with us. And now what do we know in the disappearance of Mariah Woods?

Well, what we know now is that at 626 a.m. on November 27th, Earl Kimrey made a call to the Onslaught County Emergency 911 Center stating that the little girl who lived in his trailer, Mariah Woods, is missing. And we listened to a 911 call that goes for more than six minutes. And we hear Mr. Kimrey speaking, and he sounds as if he's very winded as he's talking to the operator who's trying to ascertain what exactly is going on out at Dawson Cabin Road. And he repeats repeatedly that we've searched the inside of the house several times and the yard itself, and we cannot find her.

Our little girl is missing. You know, it just turns my stomach to hear it, Mike McHugh, because we know that police say he, boyfriend Earl Kimrey II, knew very well where Mariah was at that time, that she was dead and lying face down in a creek a couple of miles from home. She couldn't possibly have gotten there on her own. And you hear in the 911

call, he says, quote, they've looked everywhere for her and they've checked in the house, quote, two or three times and the yard you can hear him saying our three-year-old is nowhere to be found we've looked everywhere in our house and out in our yard and our little girl she's missing right now mike mchugh i'm looking at a photo of mariah and this is the one i will forever associate with her in a pink dress-up dress, fluffy dress, and little fake drop earrings, her hair pulled back with a pink tiara and a bow on it, like from a package, a big pink bow, and she has

her baby doll dressed in pink with a pink headband, and she's feeding the baby doll with a pink bottle. This is how I think of Mariah Woods. I don't want to think of her face down in a creek, dead. And now the 911 call emerges. I mean, the depth of deception, Mike McHugh. Yeah, and let me expand on what you just said there, Nancy, too, that the area in which Mariah was found was not just around the corner from their home. It was 21 miles from their home. And the only source of transportation this family had was the 1999 van, which was later seized under a search warrant. Mr. Kimrey sounds very exhausted

and very excited in that 911 tape. But like you said, knowing now what we do know, he had a very busy, it sounds as though he had allegedly a very busy morning, late evening on the 26th and 27th of November, because that's where the body was taken down the Shaw Highway in Pender County, the neighboring county from Onslaught County. You talk about all of the images you see there and describe it in the pink color. Looking at the items that were seized from the house, we see a pink pajama. We see a pink blanket.

We see pink and blue pillows. We see pink fitted sheets. Mariah's favorite color, obviously, was pink. You know, when you say that, it just kills me because Troy, Karen, Joe Scott, you know, my children, they're now 10. And I remember Lucy's favorite color, I think, was pink, but she insisted that it was purple so she could be different. And everything was pink and purple. Joe Scott Morgan, you have seen so many dead bodies, and that includes the bodies of children, as have I. And to hear Mike McHugh talking about her favorite color,

and now she's in a coffin, and we're looking at a death penalty trial. Joe Scott, how are they going to prove it? Well, one of the big things here, Nancy, is going to be toxicology in this particular case because they've listed this as she had toxic levels of chloroform in her system. And as you know, and maybe some of our listeners don't, when we do, when we draw blood in the morgue, we do a standard panel for things that we'd look for. Chloroform is not one of them. So I think that the police are going to have a tremendous amount of evidence, physical evidence, they were covered at the scene,idence of chloroform or the

ability to make chloroform. It probably made them scratch their heads in the beginning. And then when they coupled that with what they saw at autopsy and these chemical tests, this little girl suffered, Nancy. It's a horrible way to die. It's a neurotoxin. Um, and in addition to that, it caused her, uh, it caused her liver to go into acute failure. And this is a horrible way to die. We're talking about vomiting, severe headaches, um, probably seizures as well. And the depth of depravity here, uh, that, that this, this guy engaged in with this little girl and other things that have come up in the past that we've talked about with her, I think that they're not going to have a real hard time in court with this. You know, just listening to him speak, Mike McHugh, it is now definitely going to be a death penalty prosecution. Is that correct? Absolutely. We had a Rule 24 hearing on Monday this week, and in that, the district attorney,

Ernie Lee, told the court that his office was pursuing this as a capital case. In North Carolina, the district attorneys have 11 aggravating circumstances from which to choose to go forward with a capital case. They're by statute. And I'm looking at it right now. And on number nine is murder. That was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel. That's how it's written. And I think this case, given what we know so far, would fit that criteria. District Attorney Ernie Lee has been doing this. He's been a prosecutor for 31 years, eight of which as the elected official as district attorney. He's handled eight capital cases, and he's come away with four death sentences in his tenure as a prosecutor.

So this is not his first time around the block. And Mike, for those of us who are not lawyers or journalists in North Carolina, in that state, a Rule 24 hearing is before a judge in a first-degree murder case where the state will say if it's seeking the death penalty, and in this case, they said yes. Absolutely. And they are moving fast on this. This, you know, Kimmery was arrested on, was charged on January 24th with the murder. And he went his case went before the grand jury on February 13th. And a day or so later, Mr. Lee came out telling in a press release that he was seeking the death penalty. This is moving very quickly. Kimmery will be back in court on April 23rd, where counsel will be there just to make sure that everybody is on board and moving forward. There's talk in the court and on the street with other people close to the case that perhaps a venue change is the sheriff, Sheriff Hans Miller, after the Rule 24 hearing. And he said that, quote, the case is now in the judicial world, but the attorneys battle it out there.

But then he went on to say that this is an ongoing investigation, leaving the door open for possible future charges. And that's always something that everybody has been talking about, what will happen with Christy Wood, Mariah's mother. Will she be charged in any way? Well, as a matter of fact, that was my very next question. Did the mother, little Mariah's mother, know what was going on in that home? According to Mariah's biological father, she did. Is that true listen to her mother begging for Mariah her three-year-old little girls returned please bring her back and I love her I'll do anything that I can whatever you

want just break her home please save us. She's my baby. She is she means to you and y community? She's like an twos tied and burnt on ea out. I was pregnant with our little angel. She's g of make you laugh. She's goofy, outgoing, talkative. She knows how to make your day brighter. A lot to this community and people that again? Everything in the world. Just to be able to touch her and hold her and not let her go again. Like if anything. Talk to Onslaught County Sheriff Department, please, and let us know.

And if whoever has her, please, I'm begging you, bring her home safe. To Troy Slayton, L.A. defense attorney joining us, do you predict charges on Mariah's mother, or will she be held as a witness for the prosecution in a death penalty case against her boyfriend? Nancy, first let me say that my heart breaks for the family of this little girl and everybody involved. Whether the death penalty is sought against him, whether charges are brought against the mother, this is a tragedy. But as far as the mother, the prosecutor knows what they know at this point. And they may very well, for tactical reasons, be waiting to charge her

in order to try and get information from her to help with their main prosecution, which is the death penalty case against this guy. And it seems to me that with regard to the death penalty, his defense attorneys, the whole shift and focus in the defense case becomes trying to save the person's life. Well, speaking of the biological father, Alex Woods, this is what he tells me. This was just after his little girl's body had been found. Have they told you how they think she was killed, Alex? No, not yet. As soon as they found her body, they rushed her to Greenville, North Carolina,

where they was going to perform the autopsy. And I'll find out further information on how, when, why, well, not why, but how and when and all that information. Alex, do they believe that Mariah was molested? I have not. I do not know that. Me thinking, I have, yes, I think so. I hope and pray not, just for the peace of mind, but I think so, yes. I have not heard that from nobody because, you know, they're now just doing the autopsy, so I don't know. Alex, was she clothed when she was found? I have no idea. They did not tell me. All they told me was that they found my baby girl.

They found Mariah about 20 minutes away from where we're at, 20, 25 minutes away from our home. Let me pause as we make our way through this maze of facts to thank our partner making our program on SiriusXM 132 possible. It's LegalZoom. And you all know by now, small business, huge hot topic, National Small Business Month at LegalZoom is perfect timing. Whether you're just starting out or you already have a business, 2018 offers incredible opportunities, and this is why. There are new tax laws, including the biggest changes for business owners in the last 30 years. LegalZoom helps you understand what it means for you. LegalZoom is not a law firm. They are a nationwide network of independent lawyers and tax professionals to help you figure out all these new tax guidelines. Can they help you? Can they hurt you?

Can you save money? That's what they can do for you and so much more. They will help you tap into the right resources to run your business using 16 years of experience to give business owners the tools to start and run their business the right way from the ground up. Over the next weeks, find out how LegalZoom can help you during National Small Business Month. Don't miss this. Check out LegalZoom.com today. Special savings if you enter code Nancy in the referral box at checkout. LegalZoom, where life meets legal. LegalZoom.com. LegalZoom, thank you for what you do for business owners.

Established and just starting out across the country every day. And thank you for being our partner here on Sirius XM 132. Judge, as to the Rule 24 pretrial conference, Your Honor, the state would contend that the state will be seeking the death penalty in this particular case. The state would contend there's at least one aggravating circumstance pursuant to 15A-2000. Therefore, that would make this case a capital case. Police say boyfriend Earl Kimrey II knew very well Mariah was dead. Listen. All right, so I need to get a description. What race is she? She's white, blonde hair, about three feet tall.

Do you know how much she weighs? 30 pounds. Okay. Does she have any characteristics on her face, like scars or birthmarks, anything? Blue eyes. She's got pajamas. Okay. And what kind of PJs did you put her in, sir?

What color? They were pink. Okay. And her name? Her name is Mariah. Mariah? Woods. Last name Woods?

Yes. Okay. All right, sir. And who was the last person you seen her with? The last person, me and my girlfriend put her to bed right when we came in. We came in for a trip last night, and everybody went to bed at like 8.30 or around that time. Okay. I can't say for sure because we're usually going to bed at 7.30, but we're coming home from vacation. Okay.

And do you know anywhere that she might go at all, neighbors or anywhere? No, we don't. We haven't been listening to military along. We don't have any neighbors that are friendly. Okay. Has she been missing before? Yeah, no ma'am. Okay. Did you see any personal? I was taking like a blanket or a teddy bear that she might have. Thank you.

You said this is how you said this. No, nothing. She said, she took my hand. Thank you. You s this? Yeah, no, nothing. S What's on the floor? She you're fading out, sir. Hello? Can you hear me now? Yes, sir. Now what were you saying? She said that the pajamas she put her bed in are laying beside her bed.

Okay. So she's not in the pink pajamas? They're pink footie pajamas. I can't recall exactly what she put her bed in because I didn't dress her. Okay. Okay. And you said they're on the floor? Yes, sir, on the floor in her room. And does she have any kind of charitable device with us, sir, like a tablet or anything that we can track GPS. No. And who has legal custody, sir? I have mother, Christy Woods.

Is that what a care fee? Okay. Okay. Now was there any letters or anything left behind? Do you think anyone? Nothing. Nothing. It's just you see this into into into into her. Okay. It may have your name sir. My name is Adolphus Kimmery. I'm sorry. You said your first name was... You're fading out again, sir.

Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Can you hear me? Mm-hmm. Hey. You said your name is... Adolphus Kimmery.

Kimmery? Yes. K-I-M-R-E-Y. To Karen Stark, New York psychologist, whether the mom knew about alleged molestation or drugs in the home or not remains to be seen. But, I mean, practically speaking, how could she not know, Karen? It's hard to believe that she didn't know. But then again, Nancy, we all have trouble wrapping our minds around the fact that she would have allowed this to go on with awareness that her daughter was so desperate to hang on to the men that they're with that they actually bargain away their children to keep the relationships they have no sense of their own worth and don't have the kind of motherly instincts that we would normally believe

any mother would have as you were talking about. Yeah, you know, I've never been I always raise an eyebrow anytime I hear people say the boyfriend is in the house the boyfriend is in the house and anytime I work a homicide and there is, you know, our awareness is already raised anytime you have a death within the family toward other family members. But you start talking about these other peripherals, I'll put it, that come into the environment. This kid, this guy, this man didn't have any

interest in this child, the well-being of the child. And that extends, I think, obviously, to the mother in this case as well. She had no interest in the welfare of this child. If she did, she wouldn't bring this type of person into this environment with this little angel. You know, you were talking about her dressing up. Nancy, I got two girls. You know, I see her, and I see this horrible world that she lives in. She probably had escaped into this fantasy world, wearing her dresses, thinking she's a princess.

And then right down the hall is this monster that's living in the house with them. Now, let's go now to Sheriff Hans Miller speaking to reporters. The autopsy, the toxicology report showed that she died from chloroform, toxicity chloroform. How, can you explain how that happened and how the suspect obtained chloroform? Well, there is much information that is scientific in nature, obviously. We have to depend on what science tells us. But there is a lot of information that we cannot legally or should not put out. It will come out in court. We suspect that this chemical was used to disable the child,

and according to the autopsy report, it led to her death, which was really unfortunate, as we all know. At what point did that happen? Do you believe that that happened? Well, again, the details of the investigation, I know the answer. However, that is something that needs to wait until it comes out to court. So the chemical was the cause of death and let's wait and let's be patient until the court case, until we answer that question. Can you say anything about how the suspect allegedly got that chemical, chloroform? I am not able to answer that at this point.

Will there be any more arrests? Well, arrests in our system of justice, an arrest is only made if probable cause is achieved. We have tried very actively to explore every lead, every bit of evidence was used. And at this point, we do not have any additional evidence that would lead to another arrest. That does not mean that this investigation is closed. That means that we're just not there to make another arrest at this point. Can you talk about how the mother, Christy Woods, has been involved in helping with this investigation? She has been cooperative. And she has provided information that led to this investigation.

And again, to re-answer the other question about any additional arrests, this investigation is not over however we have to make sure that we have probable cause without probable cause no arrest were there any visible signs of a sexual assault well again that's going to be part of the court and i i don't well i understand that you want a lot more information so uh we ask you to please respect us and let that case come out in court. Let that information come out in court because we don't want to jeopardize the court case and we certainly do not want to poison the jury. We know where these sex abuse allegations came from. The brothers that lived there in the home, the older brothers of Mariah.

Mike McHugh, what now? Well, like Sheriff Miller said, it's an ongoing investigation. They're still trying to uncover more evidence. I spoke to Walter Paramore. Now, he's the defense attorney for Mr. Kimmerer. He's court-appointed. And he told me on the sidewalk outside the district attorney's office moments before the Rule 24 hearing was to take place, I asked him,

I said, do you expect more charges? Could you see Christy Woods being charged? And he said, rhetorically back to me, Mike, you're a smart guy. Think about it. They live in a 70-foot single wide trailer. She didn't know what was going on in that house. What we need, what the prosecutor needs and what the investigator needs is probable cause, but you could come up with perhaps aiding and abetting or obstruction of justice right off the top of your head and try to apply that to her. So I don't think it's over as far as it goes with the mother in this incident because they were admittedly all there at the same time when they got back from their trip from Raleigh on November 26th and went to bed sometime,

they're saying, between 8 and 8.30. So yeah, I'm sure that's what investigators are continuing to focus on. We asked Hans Miller in the press conference after the Rule 24 hearing if Christy was still cooperating as she was supposedly doing during the investigation on the week of November 27th. And he said that she was. We asked then, do you have a location where she's at? And he hedged on that one, answering it, well, if I say where she is now and she happened to move from that location, then it would be a false statement that I made. We believe that she's in the area, though she hasn't been cited out in the community.

So to her location, we're not sure. But I'm sure investigators are still focusing on her and trying to build probable cause and evidence. We'll see. Listen. Judge, in 18 CRS 50503, the defendant has been indicted as of February 13, 2018, by the Onslow County Grand Jury with first-degree murder. How does he plead?

Pleads not to. Judge, in 18 CRS 50504, an indictment returned by the Onslow County Grand Jury on February 13, 2018. How does it plead to the offense of felony child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury? Not guilty. And 17, CRS 57545, true bill of indictment returned by the Onslow County Grand Jury on February 13, 2018. It's a three-count indictment. First count is for felony second-degree burglary. Second count, felony larceny. Third count, felony possession of stolen

property. How does he plead to those counts? The honor to each and every count enumerated by Mr. Lee in terms of plea of not guilty. In 17 CRS 57544, a true bill of his indictment was returned by the Onslow County Grand Jury on February 13, 2018. It's a two-count indictment. Those offenses are felony, common law, obstruction of justice, and felony concealment of a death. How does he plead to those counts? Out of each of the two charges, the number is unbelievable. He's in the plea of not guilty.

We are waiting and watching the case, hoping that justice will unfold. A 19-year-old University of South Carolina girl is dead. But why? Straight out to Larry Mayher, Crime Stories investigative reporter. So far, we know that a South Carolina so-called sorority girl, just 19 years old, is dead. 19-year-old Rachel Bandman, who goes to University of South Carolina in Columbia, found dead. Now, very, very unusual set of circumstances. First of all, Larry Mayher, how was she found?

Her roommate found her dead in her off-campus apartment. That's right. You know, you think you would be safe just five blocks from campus, right? Officials initially ruled the Chi Omega sorority sister's death suspicious, not really understanding what had happened. But then everything changed. Larry Mayher, what did they determine was her cause of death? It was determined that she died of an overdose of the opioid oxycodone. With me,

Dr. William Maroney, medical examiner and author of a bestseller now on Amazon, American Narcan. Also with us, George Schiro, forensics expert. You know, Dr. William Maroney, we know that this young sorority girl had one Oxycontin pill too many for her small frame. But why would that lead? Why would police be led to a criminal investigation? What about the scene made them suspicious? When they look at the scene, you have to decide how she took the medicine and if she took the medicine with the assistance of another person then that is when an accident can become a homicide in our local community a husband and wife injected each other with methadone and that's very different than just

having it on the table and taking it. When the husband died because the wife injected the husband, she was charged with homicide because, number one, it's a dangerous activity. Number two, it's a dangerous drug. And there's something about how the medicine was administered. And when people take these drugs orally, they have to take a lot of them. So you're taking an abnormal amount to get what you want. Sometimes they crush them and snort them.

Sometimes they crush them and dilute them and inject them. And every time you break down... Dilute them with what? They would dilute them with water to inject them. But if you break the formulation down to use it in a way that it's not meant to be used, that's premeditation. An accident is, I have arthritis, I take it for arthritis, something happened and I died, but I was taking it for my arthritis. If it's an illegal activity, these are non-medical uses. That is somebody coming in and this, you're going to see this

from the federal government more than ever before. They're going to hold the sellers and the dealers accountable for the death of the people from these drugs because these people are addicted now. Their brains are hijacked. And the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 makes it illegal to give any addict an opiate knowing that they're addicted. This young girl, a public relations major at USC, a Chi Omega sorority sister from Virginia, was actually found dead by her roommate. They lived at Main Street's Hub apartment complex. And this all went down on a fatal dose of drugs. And we are talking about over-the-counter. We are talking about prescription drugs, prescriptions signed typically by a doctor.

OxyContin, a painkiller. Now, I'm curious about the location, the downtown hub, high-rise apartments. Who else lived there? Is there surveillance video? Why is this deemed a homicide versus an accidental overdose? What about it made police suspicious? Oxycodone, OxyContin. Dr. William Maroney, it is an epidemic right now in our country. And now we've got yet another teen girl casualty.

The crisis is bigger than you could possibly imagine. And all of these misuse of prescriptions is leading to increased heroin use. In her case, if her dealer was setting her up to give her more and give her more, he was setting her up to transfer her off of something else to get her into heroin if this can be proven if he's breaking and crushing tablets that are never meant to be break broken if he's contributing to that it's it's very different non-medical i mean how do i know somebody didn't just say hey try one of these uh you'll love it'll make you feel good and then then she dies, Dr. Maroney. Well, you don't know that, but as soon as they change it from accident to homicide, his contributing role has a much higher percentage in an activity that directly related to something he alone could do. And breaking the formulation so that this could be abused or injecting it or

helping her learn how to snort it there's evidence there that shows he was involved and that's why it's now homicide question why why would it would it have a greater impact on someone of her youth and slight frame? I'm talking about a 19-year-old sorority girl found dead in her off-campus apartment of oxycodone. Oxycodone or oxycontin is a painkiller typically prescribed by doctors very, very widely. But as a matter of fact, Oxycodone, a powerful narcotic prescription drug that is being used more and more for, as they say, recreational use. It gives you an illegal quote high. It is one of the most popular illegally used drugs in the country and is responsible for literally countless deaths. Until this hearing that has just gone down, Bandman's cause of death had not been publicly announced. After her death, law enforcement reported no signs of trauma and no forced entry into her room.

To you, George Skiro, you're the forensics expert. What does that mean to you? No trauma on her body and no forced entry into her off-campus apartment. Well, that indicates to me that an intruder wasn't involved or someone forcibly perhaps made her take the drugs. What the investigators probably looked for, they looked for probably to see what other types of medications she may have had in her apartment, whether there was any alcohol involved.

But also, they probably began looking at, you know, where did she get these drugs? And were they obtained through a legal method or were they obtained off the street somewhere. But it has now been classified as homicide, meaning she was deliberately killed. Deliberately killed. Now, a bizarre twist to Larry Mayher. The hearing has just gone down in which her cause of death was publicly disclosed. What more do we know about the investigation? The prosecution has been kind of tight-lipped about the turn in the investigation from accident to homicide. The suspect is identified as 22-year-old Anthony Hunt, who lives in Columbia, South Carolina,

and who at the time of his arrest was out on bail awaiting trial on another drug charge. He is the only person identified as being involved in this case other than the victim. However, investigators have let it be known that they believe the man charged in this case intentionally gave Rachel Bandman a dosage of oxycodone that he knew would kill her. Wow. How do you gauge that, Dr. William Maroney? This guy, Hunt, gave her a dose that he knew would kill her. And another warning, the Hub apartment high-rise where she lived is a very popular downtown apartment complex just a few blocks

from the USC main campus. It's a 21-story tower housing about 850 USC students and parents of those students better be worried because this killer, alleged killer, has been walking amongst their children. Go ahead. When you look at the intent of an OxyContin 80 milligram, you have a steel worker, a guy who pours concrete. He blows a disc in his back. He can't get to surgery right away. He's got to go back to work. The doctor prescribes two or three of these 80 milligrams a day. And this is a 280, 290 pound steel worker pushes concrete,

drives a double axle truck. You deliver that same product to 105-pound sociology major, that's insane. You're inviting disaster. And if there's any other drugs involved that would make it more potent, because of polypharmacy, you're mixing things that's a lot more dangerous, or you're mixing it with alcohol, or you're changing the route of delivery from a simple oral system to breaking it to snort or making a solution to inject, you're premeditatedly trying to break this and become much more active to force an abuse. The brain is hijacked. This person needs something. It's a chronic relapsing

brain disease, and you're supplying something now that's deadly based on concentration or route of delivery. And that's why they would change from accident to homicide. And so many people, Dr. Maroney, don't think they're, quote, doing drugs when they use a prescription pill. They think that is somehow safer than doing heroin or cocaine. But it's just as deadly. There really is no difference between Oxycontin and heroin. Almost chemically, they're almost the same. Nancy, the devastation caused by the opioid epidemic in South Carolina is so large.

In fact, Governor Henry McMaster outlined it in his State of the State address recently. Another threat that we face comes in pill form. It's hardly recognized by most people. The opioid epidemic is affecting every state in the country. You've read about it. But it's not a typical crime problem. This is a crisis born of human pain and suffering. This is something different.

This is something we have not seen before. 54% of the pills on the street come from your neighbor's medicine cabinet and an unused prescription of too many pills. For the last three years, we've had more opioid-related deaths in South Carolina than homicides and drunk driving deaths combined. In 2016, this silent hurricane killed 616 people in our state. And it's not just the pills. Addictions intensify from one substance to another. From 2014 to 2015, right here, heroin deaths increased 67 percent. Since 2015, SLED has seen a more than 700 percent increase in the number of drug cases involving fentanyl-related compounds.

We must take a strong, new, bold approach to this unprecedented threat. It consists of what I call a full court press, including awareness, information, and treatment. Last month, I declared a statewide public health emergency in South Carolina because of opioids. This allows us to bring the full power of the state's emergency management infrastructure, health care apparatus, and law enforcement resources to bear as a single team upon the growing epidemic of opioid deaths, addiction, and abuse. A comprehensive informational website has been established. Doctors are now warning their patients that opioids which make the procedure pain-free may also make the patient an addict. Usually five days worth of pills

is all it takes to produce an addict. Disposal protocols are being established. Our task force is scouring the country for ideas to work. Ladies and gentlemen, this is something on which we must get busy. We must solve this crisis in South Carolina. Why? A 19-year-old University of South Carolina girl is dead. The investigation goes on. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.