The Charlotte stories we’re still thinking about as 2023 comes to a close

Maybe it was a story that was so big that it captured the attention of the entire community. Or maybe it was a tale that was so eloquently told that it forced us to keep reading to find out what happened and why. Maybe it was a combination of both.

These stories were the ones that stuck with The Charlotte Observer throughout 2023.

Panthers founder, former owner Jerry Richardson leaves behind a complicated legacy

March 1, 2023

Jerry Richardson, the founder and original owner of the Carolina Panthers, died on March 1, 2023 at age 86.

He left behind a complicated legacy, one that I explored in an obituary that I actually began writing in 2009, not long after Richardson had a heart transplant in Charlotte.

It’s an open secret in the journalism industry that big newspapers pre-write obituaries of local luminaries so as to be able to paint more complete pictures of their lives on deadline, leaving just a few spaces to fill in on the day of the death.

But for years, with the help of a colleague and several editors, I had to rewrite large swaths of Richardson’s obituary. He lived for 14 years after that heart transplant, and in that time his team drafted Cam Newton and made another Super Bowl run. Then, in 2018, he sold the Panthers to David Tepper, following Richardson’s workplace misconduct scandal that stained his vast footprint in both Carolinas.

Despite all of Richardson’s flaws, I was sad to have to finally publish this obituary after it lived for 14 years in my laptop. Because it’s also true that I came to The Charlotte Observer 30 years ago to take a job covering the Panthers, and that move changed my life. And the Panthers would never have existed without Jerry Richardson.

— Scott Fowler, sports columnist

Secrets of the Picasso landscape exhibit: Behind the scenes at the Mint’s landmark show

Feb. 3, 2023

It was going to be one of the, if not the, biggest art exhibits Charlotte has seen in decades — Mint Museum Uptown was hosting the first-ever traveling exhibit of Picasso landscapes. What I and my colleague Catherine Muccigrosso did was provide a look at how the Mint landed the exhibit and what it took to mount such a show. In an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look before the exhibit opened, we saw last-minute work being done, with some priceless paintings already hung and others unceremoniously covered with brown paper or still in wooden crates. But what we did see was dazzling and felt lucky to be among the very first to see and share what was about to be unveiled.

— Adam Bell, business and arts editor

How a stray bullet nearly took — and forever changed — the life of this 13-year-old girl

March 30, 2023

After hearing story after story of children who were victims of gun violence in Charlotte, we wondered: What is it like for someone younger than 18 to be injured by a gunshot and have to endure the physical and mental pain of recovery? How does it differ for someone so innocent to have very grown-up consequences for years?

This story was about a Charlotte family coping with the aftermath of a random act of violence, and centered around 13-year-old Aalayah Fulmore, who narrowly survived after being struck by a stray bullet that came through the wall of her mother’s apartment. The day we met her, a TV crew was there, too, and Aalayah seemed to freeze and then shrink with it around. Her mother, Stacy, ultimately decided Aalayah wasn’t ready to speak to us or them on camera that day.

But after continuing to cultivate a relationship with her family and giving Aalayah several more weeks to warm to the idea of talking to us, she finally did — and shared a detailed, thoughtful and unique perspective that has haunted us ever since.

— Théoden Janes, features and entertainment writer

Cotham came back in 2023 to a different Democratic caucus. How it led to her leaving

April 5, 2023

State Rep. Tricia Cotham was still a registered Democrat in April when she stepped to a lectern flanked by North Carolina Republican Party officials to announce she would change parties.

Cotham’s decision handed the N.C. Republican Party a one-vote supermajority, and she quickly dispensed with the notion she’d hold to values she campaigned on when roughly one month later she voted to implement more stringent restrictions on abortion.

With Cotham’s help, Republicans overrode 18 of Cooper’s vetoes in 2023, on everything from election laws, to charter schools, to a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” and rules that teams public school students compete on should be “based solely on the student’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

Democrats were, to put it mildly, furious. Many wanted their campaign contributions back. They wanted her out of office. “I took her at her word,” said U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson, who donated to Cotham’s 2022 campaign and asked for a refund. “That turned out to be a mistake.”

Cotham is running for reelection in 2024 in a Republican-leaning NC House district on the southern edge of Mecklenburg County, and she’s slated to face one of three Democrats that want to win the same seat.

— Josh Bergeron, local news and government editor

How generations of Second Ward alumni thrived at Charlotte’s first Black high school

April 27, 2023

The Second Ward package celebrated the school’s centennial with vignettes from selected graduates — even one older than 100 — from each decade since 1923. The legions of alumni — a national group — and the passion for their alma mater truly inspired me.

A trove of memorabilia stored in the Second Ward Alumni House on Beatties Ford Road really speaks volumes. I was awed. A two-story homestead, the house had walls full of photos of dozens of graduates; newspaper clippings mounted on panels; trophies, ribbons, yearbooks, maps of Brooklyn showing where the building once stood. Arthur Griffin, a Mecklenburg County Commissioner, and 1966 alumnus, beamed as he showed me each item. I beamed along with him, excited to share his emotion, pride and joy.

— Lisa Vernon Sparks, race and culture reporter and community engagement editor

The end of this bride’s life was ugly. But the rest of it was filled with so much beauty.

May 5, 2023

This story was about a 34-year-old Charlotte native named Samantha Miller, who was tragically killed when an alleged drunk driver crashed into a golf cart that was carrying Miller and her brand-new husband just hours after they had exchanged vows in Folly Beach, South Carolina. It was hard not to feel gut-punched by the devastating cruelness of the tragedy — Miller’s life ending so violently on what was supposed to be the very beginning of a wonderful new chapter of it, while she was still wearing her wedding dress. But Samantha’s mom Lisa, in the throes of a tremendous amount of grief, helped paint a vivid picture of someone whose last day on earth was otherwise an absolutely, positively happy one.

— Théoden Janes, features and entertainment writer

Two die in massive fire at SouthPark apartment building. Crane worker saved

May 18, 2023

Charlotteans remember where they were when they first heard about the SouthPark fire or saw its billowing smoke cloud. The massive construction site fire charred a parking garage and left onlookers — on the scene and miles away — aghast. The entire city wanted updates, and details from on-the-ground reporters and photographers unveiled the mysterious fire’s story.

I stationed at my laptop, sorting through each new detail, as former staffers Gordon Rago and Kallie Cox fed information from the scene and my inbox filled with community members’ own accounts. The few words published as the fire broke out quickly transformed into an in-depth piece on the fire’s cause, impact and two victims. It was one of the truest examples of journalists pinpointing and unraveling information in situations that demand the public’s attention.

— Julia Coin, breaking news and courts reporter

North Carolina autopsy backlog brings pain, financial crises to grieving families

June 1, 2023

The investigative project “Burdened after Death” revealed big delays by the state of North Carolina to complete required death investigations. In nearly 1,400 cases since 2020, they took more than a year.

Observer investigative reporter Ames Alexander and News & Observer data reporter David Raynor documented the scale of the delays with great precision — along with how the extreme waits punish families.

One story that hit hard involved a father whose ex-wife died of a suspected drug overdose. Her insurance company would not pay the death benefit until it received a medical examiner’s report. The father was unable to pay their son’s college tuition. The campus agreed to wait but not forever. For eight months they were uncertain if the son could stay in college.

— Cathy Clabby, investigations editor, McClatchy Southeast

As North Wilkesboro revels in its return to NASCAR, another NC track awaits revival

June 16, 2023

The biggest story in American motorsports in 2023 was the reopening of North Wilkesboro Speedway. It was a story that strummed all the right strings of NASCAR nostalgia: Wilkesboro, after all, hearkened to the days of moonshine running. It represented small-town Americana. It was a cultural and financial boon to a rural North Carolina community before NASCAR left for larger stadiums and larger audiences in 1996 and planned to never come back. The story was blanketed by NASCAR media. But as a follow up to the success that was North Wilkesboro, I decided to spend some time at another abandoned North Carolina track — and with its ambitious, punk-rock owner — to answer a rarely asked question: Could Rockingham Speedway be resurrected, too?

— Alex Zietlow, Carolina Panthers and sports enterprise reporter

This 12-year-old wants to continue gender-affirming care. NC lawmakers are trying to stop it.

July 7, 2023

The first time I met Mike Dumas, he didn’t say too much. I get it: few kids like talking to adults. But once Mike overcame his initial shyness, he was goofy and sarcastic and funny and just like any other 12-year-old — except he knows a lot more about politics and medical procedures. Mike is transgender, and has known since he was 5 years old that he is his true self when he has a short, shaggy haircut, wears boyish clothing and answers to Michael rather than the feminine name his parents gave him at birth.

Earlier this year, North Carolina lawmakers passed H.B. 808, blocking most children under the age of 18 from receiving gender-affirming treatment — such as puberty blockers that Mike has taken since age 9. Mike falls into an exception where he can continue to follow the care plan established before the law went into effect, but he and his parents, Josh and Amanda, have been fighting to raise awareness of the legislation. One interesting postscript: Amanda was so motivated to be a voice among those who set policies that she ran for and was elected to the Huntersville Board of Commissioners in November.

— Jodie Valade, planning and enterprise editor and writer

Purgatory behind bars: He’s spent 11 years in jail — and no one knows if he’s guilty

July 13, 2023

Most mentally-ill North Carolinians who step foot inside a courtroom are entering a broken system. Some, like Devalos Perkins, enter something worse: purgatory behind bars.

Perkins’ 11-year stint awaiting trial with no conviction was detailed by former Charlotte Observer reporter Kallie Cox in the four-part series, “Purgatory.” His family credits it with spurring the stagnant system that kept him indefinitely ricocheting between jail bunks and hospital beds. That’s about all the validation and fuel a journalist could hope for.

While informing the public is the pillar of what we do, I always hope that information will spark change, discussion and collaboration in the community. There’s still more to share. While Perkins is expected to be released from jail under his guilty plea Dec. 14, his case is only one.

— Julia Coin, breaking news and courts reporter

As a serial killer moved like a shadow across Charlotte, one woman made a promise

July 26, 2023

Charlotte’s only known serial killer raped and strangled 10 women over a 22-month period before his arrest in March 1994. Thirty years later, Henry Louis Wallace remains on death row, even as the murderous shadow he cast still illustrates the staying power of violence and loss.

Wallace’s killings left at least seven children without their mothers. Over five years of reporting, I got to know two of them.

Both Natalia Little and Tyrece Woods lost their mothers when they were too young to remember them. They’re now in their early 30s, still wondering what might have been had a mother’s guiding hand not been ripped away. Woods was in his mother’s arms when she was raped and strangled by Wallace.

“What did he steal from me? That’s like a run-on sentence,” Woods told me. “He took everything.”

— Michael Gordon, former courts and legal affairs reporter

‘Not my kid.’ How $7 pills get Charlotte teens hooked on fentanyl

Nov. 9, 2023

Every community needs a series on fentanyl right now. The synthetic opioid claims thousands of lives each year, and those lives are increasingly becoming shorter.

I learned about the pervasive, addictive drug through reporting on its seat in high school classrooms. A routine article on a pair of drug dealers found with fentanyl brought me to dining room tables, a dead son’s bedroom and a 17-year-old’s funeral. Parents who recognized the GoogleMaps image of the drug dealers’ home said their kids bought drugs there. They said teens were getting hooked on laced pills they thought were Percocets, but as reporting continued and parents trusted me enough to talk to their children — the teens most immediately affected by fentanyl — I learned the shocking truth: the deadly opioid had become a drug of choice.

— Julia Coin, breaking news and courts reporter

Frank Reich is hired and fired as the Carolina Panthers head coach in 2023

The Panthers’ first offensive-minded head coach had such an “offensive” start to his tenure that he only lasted 11 games in Carolina. Frank Reich was hired in January after the Panthers passed on promoting former interim head coach Steve Wilks, a Charlotte native, to the permanent job. Not hiring Wilks led to countless failed gambles in the offseason, including Reich, who ultimately had a shorter tenure (11 games vs. 12) and much worse record (1-10 vs. 6-6) than Wilks. The most interesting aspect of Reich’s dismissal was that he hadn’t lost the locker room — players were still bought in. Ultimately, Reich’s major failure was not developing rookie quarterback Bryce Young quickly enough, and he looks like another potential poor gamble for owner David Tepper and the front office.

— Mike Kaye, Carolina Panthers and NFL reporter

Hundreds in NC lose homes, equity after HOAs foreclose. Who protects homeowners?

Dec. 13, 2023

The project “Hopes Foreclosed” exposed the toll of North Carolina HOAs having the power to foreclose for any amount of unpaid dues, no matter how small.

Observer investigative reporter Ames Alexander and News & Observer data reporter David Raynor detailed how those who lose homes to HOA foreclosures typically are stripped of most — if not all — of their equity.

Efforts have failed to make it tougher, including by setting minimum debts that property owners must accumulate before foreclosures can occur.

It was the lost dollars that got to me. The Davis Lake Community Association foreclosed on one home whose owner owed $2,349 last year. A local outfit bought it at a foreclosure auction for $4,400. In less than a year, it was resold – for nearly $310,000.

— Cathy Clabby, investigations editor, McClatchy Southeast