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Fire & Police Briefs: Police searching for missing man, 67
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Published: September 6, 2008
Winston-Salem police were looking for a man who left his house yesterday afternoon and had not returned.
Franklin Bennett, 67, left his house on San Carlos Road in eastern Winston-Salem about 4:30 to run an errand. Family members have not seen or heard from him since.
Bennett, who has several medical conditions, was driving a red Ford F-150 pickup, with license plate LPS-2224.
Police ask that anyone with information about Bennett call the Winston-Salem Police Department at 773-7700.
Fort Bragg paratrooper dies of gunshot wound
FORT BRAGG -- The military is investigating the death of a Fort Bragg paratrooper who died of a gunshot wound near the base.
The Army said yesterday that Spc. Jonathan R. Singer, 22, of Lakeview, N.Y., died early Wednesday.
Singer's company commander, Capt. Jonathan Norman, said that Singer was on the fast-track to success and had recently passed the Army Physical Fitness test with the most points allowed. Norman said that Singer was the youngest specialist in his company.
Singer was assigned to the 508th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. He joined the Army in October 2006 and was deployed with the division in August 2007.
Ex-teacher is rearrested, may have bond revoked
CLINTON -- A former North Carolina middle-school teacher accused of having sex with a 15-year-old student has been arrested again after police found her with the same boy.
Jeannie Michelle Hodges, 40, resigned from job as a language-arts teacher at Hobbton Middle School just before she was charged with statutory rape in July and accused of having an affair with a former student. Released on bond, Hodges, of Autryville, was ordered to stay away from the boy.
But WRAL-TV reported yesterday that Hodges was arrested last Saturday after authorities stopped her car at a checkpoint. The teenager was driving.
Hodges was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and allowing an unlicensed driver to drive. She was released on bond, but prosecutors say that her initial bond could now be revoked.
N.C. fire that started June 1 is contained, official says
COLUMBIA -- The wildfire that burned more than 62 square miles in Eastern North Carolina is completely contained.
But officials said yesterday that parts of the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, where the fire burned, remain unsafe for the public. The fire began June 1 with a lightning strike on private land, then burned in and around the refuge.
Refuge manager Howard Phillips said that the fire burned ground under trees, which can cause the trees to fall without warning. Phillips said that prompted officials to close part of the refuge.
He also said that although the fire is contained, it's not necessarily extinguished. It is possible, he said, that rain from Tropical Storm Hanna will put out whatever underground fire remains in the organic peat soil.
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