WRAL Newscasts
7PM News on WRAL - Wednesday, June 26, 2024
This dangerous heat is triggering a WRAL weather alert day. Which part of our area had the best chance of seeing storms tomorrow and where they could be severe? Breaking news, deputies say two siblings missing for years were murdered by their adoptive mother. We outline the charges and disturbing accusations against her. Plus, a woman who grew up inside that home is sharing her story with WRAL, the mental and physical abuse she says she endured while living there. Right now it's 7 o'clock, there's no other way to put it, it is brutally hot across our area today. Take a look at some of these highs across North Carolina, unbelievable, breaking a record set back in 1952 as we hit 103 degrees at R.D.U. Thank you for joining us. I'm Dan Hagerty. And I'm Lena Taleb, taking a live look outside from the WRAL weather camera. It is 7 o'clock, folks, and look at current temperatures, 97 degrees in Durham, 97 in Goldsboro, 95 in Sanford. Meteorologist Kat Campbell is in the WRAL severe weather center. I know we have another hour with this heat advisory, Kat. The heat advisory for today expires at 8 o'clock, but we have another heat advisory in parts of our viewing area tomorrow. Today's high, 103, the previous record, 102, set back in 1952. It was sizzling hot outside today, and we have seen our heat index at times climb above 106. And that's why there was a heat advisory earlier today. Our heat index 100 right now, 97 in the triangle at the moment, 97 with a heat index of 106 in Rocky Mountain and the heat index 104 in Clinton. I do want to let you know, today's 103 was the actual temperature, not the heat index that we had out there this afternoon. For the heat advisory tomorrow, it includes Wake County, Durham County, not included. Johnston County as well as Cumberland County included as well. The heat index could be between 102 and 108. This is mainly from 11 a.m. through 5 p.m. And that's when that heat advisory is in effect during the day tomorrow. We have a front on the way, and this should help to bring a better chance of so much needed rain and storms. I'll outline what to expect on future cast coming up. In the last few hours, investigators revealed disturbing, upsetting new details in the disappearance of two siblings, who officers now say were murdered years ago by their adoptive mother. We want to warn you that details in this case are hard to hear. And we mean that. It's very, very difficult stuff. So here's what we know. Right now, a Vontay Devon is in jail, no bonds facing several charges, including murder. Investigators believe both children, Blake and London Devon were abused, tortured and starved to death before being dismembered and burned at two different homes in Cumberland County. We believe he was mentally abused. He was physically starved and his body could no longer take the inhumane treatment. Then the Vontay developed a plan to hide Blake's remains and she forced another person in the household to participate. Unthinkable. Mario's Carly Haynes is live in the neighborhood where a Vontay Devon lives and where she was arrested today. Carly, have you talked to neighbors? How are they reacting? I have and they say this is a quiet area. They didn't even know what was happening on their own street. Now at this same home, back in November, Blake Devon's brother was experiencing a mental health crisis, later revealing he hadn't seen his brother in years. And thought he might be dead. Law enforcement surrounded this Berrydale drive home this morning to arrest a Vontay Devon. She's charged with abusing, murdering and concealing the death of her adopted children, Blake and London Devon. A Vontay Devon, he said to have kept them all, or kept them in small rooms, in complete darkness at times. They were given little food, they were given little or no food. Others believe Blake and London Devon died of starvation and abuse, and that Vontay Devon forced others who lived in the home to dismember and burn their bodies. WRL spoke with Blake Devon's biological mother after she learned of the charges. It's a shock. It's in my breath away. I wasn't expecting to hear about two remains at the time. Investigators found a metal burn barrel with two sets of human remains. Lab results confirmed one set is London Devon's. Results are still pending for the other. Neighbors tell us they didn't know much about the woman living across the street. I didn't see her a lot. She had everything delivered, her groceries, everything was delivered to her home. She only came out when she had appointments. That's really the only time I've seen her since the beginning of this. Today learning what may have been happening behind those stores. Vontay Devon is currently being held in the Cumberland County Detention Center under no bond. She'll be appearing in court tomorrow. Harley Haines, WRL News, Laventay Bill. Now it is important to look at the timeline here. It's a big part of this case, which does include a 911 call that was made by the adoptive mother. But keep in mind was made years after the children were even last seen, and not until after police started asking questions late last year. Here's a bit of that call she made to dispatchers. I'm excited to see the persons report. Harley has called the call by 911. He told me he was going to a police retreat and they were called back. When did you last see him? I don't know if I told you during this holiday time right here in a half ago. What holiday time? The last holiday is between Thanksgiving and Christmas around 2023 or 2022. Goodness gracious. 22. Now since that call, a woman has come forward talking to WRL, saying that she was once under the adoptive mother of Auntie Devon's care. Some of what she told us matches what investigators had to say. Being locked in the bathroom, having to, if we weren't locked in the bathroom, having to use pales as the restroom, she would just drag you down by your hair and beat you. So we also know that two of Devon's siblings are now in the care of Cumberland County DSS. And of course this is a case that caught national attention. One you can count on WRL to continue following with every new development. You can also find our extensive reporting plus more detailed timelines on WRL.com. This evening the Republican led state House voted to override three vetoes from Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. Two of the vetoes deal with juvenile justice reforms and another allows billboard companies to cut down more trees. The third changes the rules for wearing masks in public and creates new penalties for protesters while also loosening campaign finance rules. The state senate is expected to override the vetoes as well, which would then make them law. For more information you can visit the NC Capital section of WRL.com. Now it could also get a lot more difficult soon to find vaping liquid. A bill on the way to the governor's desk tonight would ban the sale of any vaping products that are not already approved by the FDA. WRL Capital Bureau Chief Laura Leslie is joining us live now at the state legislative building with why they took this vote. Laura. Leena, backers of this bill say it's needed to get a handle on a proliferation of vape products. They say cheap imported vapes are contributing to the rapid increase in vaping among teens. The measure would create a state registry of vaping liquids and products that have been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Starting next March, those products will be the only ones vape shops and other retailers can legally sell in North Carolina. Unapproved products would be confiscated by the state and the retailer could face fines of hundreds or thousands of dollars for repeat violations. Representative Aaron Parrais said no one even knows what's in some of the imported products on shelves all over the state. A UNC professor has likened the effort to curb youth vaping as a game of whack-a-mole. You try to understand what's in a product, what's going in the bodies of these young people and it's just really hard to understand and another one pops up. It's unmanageable. The only vape products that are currently approved by the FDA are made by three American tobacco companies, retailers and vape store owners came to the legislature to tell lawmakers that this is going to cut into their profits and could result in stores having to close their doors. The governor will have 10 days to decide whether to sign this law, veto it, or let it become law without his signature. Laura Leslie, WRLL News, Raleigh. I'm Parrais, creator of the WRLL Live Center. All new at 7 o'clock we've learned that a man died today when the pickup truck he was driving in Sampson County went off the road and into a creek. This happened just to the northeast of Clinton on Highway 403 at Gilmore Swamp, pictures from Sky 5 over the scene. The state highway patrol tells us that 77-year-old Franklin Harvey of Dudley was driving that truck when it went off the bridge and into that creek. The passenger in that truck, 54-year-old Garris Ward, was able to get out and he's okay but a dive team was able to recover the body of Harvey. Troopers say that speeding was not a factor here, they're still investigating. They say that neither man was wearing a seat belt. The NTSB released its preliminary report on the Siler City plane crash that happened nearly two weeks ago. It says another flight instructor was flying in the same traffic pattern as the small plane before the crash. According to the report, the pilot of the plane that crashed asked the other flight instructor to give him space in the air because they were having issues. The flight instructor then said he heard the pilot ask if he could land. A witness says he saw the plane flying sideways, roll over and then nosedive into the ground. A student pilot and an executive flight trainer instructor were both killed. The final report could still be months from now. Still ahead, shocking new video showing the moment a Durham woman in a motorized wheelchair was hit by a car coming up. Her family shares how she's doing tonight with her recovery, plus the effects of extreme heat builds up over time WRAL's health reporter Grace Hayba talks with doctors about the impact on our bodies with these multiple 100 degree days, Kat. Welcome back, just look at that stunning security camera video. There shows the moment a Durham woman in a motorized vehicle was struck by a car. The way Ballard is now recovering in the hospital and police also have made an arrest in this. WRAL's Monica Casey spoke with a friend of the victim about her road to recovery in a story you will only see on WRAL. Hit and runs are a consistent issue in Durham. Three people who were either on foot or bicycles were killed just last month. Now Joy Ballard has months of recovery ahead of her. She had gone to a wing stop to get food for her and her daughter, Mikaya, and on her way back she used her motorized chair. On her way back she was hit. Family friend BJ Little John says the impact of that crash was devastating. You can hear the moment Joy Ballard is hit in this video. That crash happened near the intersection of Denfield and Todd Streets. This is the second time Ballard has been hit by a car. I think it was in 2020, she was riding her bicycle in Philadelphia and someone hit her. Little John tells me that crash four years ago broke her tibia. This one left Ballard with fractured ribs, pelvis, and a broken femur along with the emotional damage. It was pretty traumatic, so there was some speed. Durham Police have arrested and charged Olufemi Ona Siroto with felony hit and run while that brings some closure, Ballard still has a long road ahead. We're thinking about what can we do to help her after this, because she's going to need a recuperation. In Durham, Monica Casey, WRL news. Seven new mobile homes vanished from a mobile home park in Hope County, but have now been recovered. Ben Dobe faces several felony larceny charges. Investigators say he told another man that he owned the homes, being stored at the Pine Green's mobile home park just outside of Rayford, but the owner who didn't want to go on camera tells WRL why the homes were taken. He tells law enforcement that he had authorization from Ryan Dobe, that Ryan had ownership of these houses and he told him if he would move ten of them for him, he would give him three. The homes were located in Harnek County, Dobe's being held without bond in the Hope County Detention Center. A new study examined the carbon emissions of popular websites. Clatch analyzed more than 500 of the biggest global websites to determine carbon emissions per user. The study findings some of the most popular sites, including YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, were the highest emitters. If the internet was a country, it would be the fourth largest emitter of CO2 in the world. Analysts say carbon emissions are only expected to rise in the coming years as energy intensive AI becomes more popular. When you have this many hot days in a row, prolonged heat can pose a danger to your health. Doctors are reminding you to keep water nearby as our area expects to see multiple more days with these high temperatures. John emergency room physician says elderly children and those with compromised immune systems are most at risk of heat stroke and heat exhaustion. He's encouraging everyone to stay on guard for the days to come. On a single day that gets really hot, folks are going to stay indoors, they're going to keep themselves hydrated. When it becomes the norm, people sort of let their guard down and I think they start taking this precaution. The doctor adds anyone taking any sort of diuretics or kidney medication also become at higher risk of dehydration and should drink extra water in the coming days. And here's a live look at downtown Raleigh on Fayetteville street live after five is underway. It's all about the women and women artists this year. Unfortunately tonight, cat, it's just such a hot night. It's rough outside tonight, Lena. It's still 97 degrees out right now. It's very, very hot and overnight temperatures only dip near 80 for the lower forecasting 79. That's as low as temperatures go overnight. So prolonged heat is certainly a threat. There are a lot of cooling stations that are open across our area. If you were in need of one, please utilize them in the days ahead. The heat index still 100 and the triangle 102 for Goldsboro and Clinton 106 and Rocky Mount Rocky Mount had a heat index of 111 earlier today that topped out our map for the hottest I saw all day, but that's not an award that you want to win. We still have a W.B.R.A.L weather alert day until eight o'clock. That is when the heat advisory expires tomorrow. We have growing storm chances on the way. So we've got some scattered storm chances ahead and the over the weekend as well. We bumped up storm chances 50% on Saturday, 60% on Sunday, no day looks like 100% chance of rain or a soaking rain where everybody gets rain, but at least we've got these summer time storm chances back and they're going to increase ahead of this cold front tomorrow. The storm threats tomorrow, damaging wind gusts, perhaps maybe some small hail. The eastern part of our viewing area is under this level one out of five risk and in green here where we have the level one out of five risk, I think that's where we have the best chance of thunderstorms in general tomorrow. One of the caveats if you live in the triangle or the western part of our viewing area that I've seen is if the storms pop up to your east tomorrow afternoon, they're going to move away from you. So I don't think that we can count on rain here in the triangle tomorrow, but there is still a chance. So let's take a look at future cast overnight. We could actually see a few showers and storms moving in. This would be very early tomorrow morning, three, four, five, six a.m., perhaps sticking around through seven a.m., and then as we get into the afternoon, we see these storms pop up and they're most likely to form really from Raleigh Fayetteville point to east. They could kind of form into a line toward the coast, but there are still a few other isolated storms on the backside of that line that tries to form. So we still have that potential for rain tomorrow, but I just don't want to get everybody's hopes up that, you know, your yard in particular is going to see the rain tomorrow. That's why we have about a 50% chance of storms. That means we think about half of our viewing area is going to see some storms tomorrow. It would be during the afternoon for the most part, but we do have that small chance very early in the morning. If you're headed to the pool, best bet is going to be about 8 a.m. through noon out there tomorrow. Let's take a look at your seven day forecast. It's a hot one. No signs of relief from the nineties any time soon. No more triple digits, though. That's the good news here, though. The heat index is still going to be in the triple digits through the weekend early next week. The heat backs off a little bit, but you know, we're talking about the heat backing off to 90 for the high low should be back in the upper sixties and starting tomorrow. We will have fourth of July on her seven day forecast. I mean, I hope people have some indoor backup plans for fourth of July, the way that we're trending. Kat, thank you. Still ahead. We are a month away now from the Olympic Games in Paris. We're talking to the athlete who with ties to our area, whose dream to get there involves his job as a local Walmart deli counter man. We'll see you next week. A debate over conservation along the Cape Fear River has area leaders wondering what to do next. New Hanover County is looking to change some guidelines for possible developments on the western bank of the Cape Fear River. County staff recommended a special type of land use there, but activists say that the land should be protected. Leaders introduced an idea to give the side of the river a downtown riverfront designation. No decisions though have been made, and the county is asking people who live there to submit some of their thoughts. It is important to hear what they think. Another really important thing over summer, Wake County's free summer meal program kicked off today with a special event. So all summer long, the county is offering free lunches for Wake County students under the age of 18. Today's kickoff was a lunch with Poe event at Playwell Park at the Poe Center. The event featured not just a free meal and a fresh meal, but also special activities, including exploring the Poe Center, grow well garden. Look at them. Look like they're having a good time. The county is able to provide these meals, by the way, thanks to community partnerships with local organizations. This is one way that we can utilize some federal dollars that are being allocated for this so that we can provide this for our children and families during the summer. The Poe Center will continue to offer free meals all summer long. It's happening on Wednesdays from 1130 a.m. until 1 p.m. other locations are open in the county, including in Kerry and Wendell. You can find that list on the Wake County website or on WRAL.com. We are now one month away from the start of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and excitement is building. And a lot of the athletes are folks from right here, so we know several local and North Carolina athletes competing. There is a new face in the world of track and field, and right now at the U.S. Olympic trials in Oregon. We're talking about Dylan Beard, attracting national attention for both his speed, and also just barely missing first place in one race by a few seconds. He has been training with NC State's track coach Ruben McCoy. In 2020, he delayed competition because of the pandemic. It's really been a long time coming. I definitely at the time in high school, when we do the 2020 Olympic trial, I'll try to make the team, but it just didn't work out that way. So I'm definitely blessed and grateful to have his opportunity here in 2024. So Beard is currently a graduate student at Howard University. In the meantime, as he's training, he's working at a Walmart, Deli counter in Wake Forest to help support his Olympic goals. So he's doing what he has to do, right, to keep on training. I love it. What a great story. I mean, he's juggling a lot of balls, isn't he? Graduate student, working, training. So a WRAL is your home for Olympic coverage, our loose McLaughlin is headed to Paris and will bring us live exclusive content directly from all the action happening out there. It starts July 26th. I hope it's a little bit cooler in Paris, but no, it's not supposed to be hot here, too. We just can't escape it. Thank you so much for joining us and making WRAL your choice for local news. The next newscast is at 10 on Fox 50, 11 on WRAL, have a great night. [MUSIC]