For Ocracoke news, click here
A mainland Hyde County woman is in the Pamlico County jail, Bayboro, without bond on two counts of murder in the drug overdose deaths June 1 of a 23-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl on mainland Hyde County.
The State Bureau of Investigation charged Tiffaney Webber, 25, of Engelhard, with two counts of murder after preliminary results showed that fentanyl was contained in the drugs that Webber had provided to victims Ryan Edward Gibbs, 23, and Sarah David Reams, 16, both of Fairfield.
The Hyde County Sheriff’s Office responded on June 1 to a possible drug overdose at a home in Fairfield and found the bodies of Reams and Gibbs, according to an SBI news release. Investigators learned that the victims had requested, obtained and used a drug they thought was cocaine.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse website, fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid pain-killer that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent and has been responsible for thousands of overdose deaths in the last several years. The drug made headlines when it was reported that the recording artist Prince died from an accidental overdose.
The investigation is on-going, and additional arrests are expected.
According to news reports, Webber was one of a dozen people arrested in July 2012 during a drug round-up in Hyde County. She was charged with four counts of possession with the intent to sell cocaine at the time.
