CHARLOTTE — A woman whose daughter died after being drugged with fentanyl is bringing awareness to a backlog in toxicology and autopsy reports in North Carolina, which leaves grieving families waiting.
“She was a graduate of App State,” said Barbara Walsh. “She was a successful businesswoman. She was looking for a home to purchase. She had $20,000 saved up.”
Sophia Walsh was 24 years old when she moved to Charlotte.
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The young woman died in August 2021 and her full toxicology report was completed five months later, which revealed she died from fentanyl poisoning.
“She died of 8.4 nanograms of fentanyl and that is enough to kill four people,” her mother told Channel 9.
Investigators told Walsh the drug likely came from a drink laced with fentanyl. Walsh said charges against the person responsible were never pursued.
“They have closed her case because of the lack of proper investigation at the beginning within the first 24 hours,” Walsh said.
She doesn’t want the same thing to happen to other families.
“We don’t know what killed our kid,” Walsh said.
Walsh is now the executive director of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina and wants something done about how long it takes to get autopsy and toxicology reports back.
All toxicology reports are done at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh.
Channel 9′s investigation into the backlog found those reports can take six months or up to a year in some cases, which can delay or prevent law enforcement from pursuing charges.
“If they don’t come up with an autopsy, and more importantly the toxicology report, then you don’t have a case,” Walsh said.
Law enforcement and prosecutors in the Charlotte area have told Channel 9 it’s a problem.
The medical examiner’s office attributes the backlog to staffing and a rise in cases.
Walsh wrote a letter to Attorney General Josh Stein asking whether some of the opioid settlement money the state received could fund more chemists in the ME’s office or process reports quicker.
“You could help these families who are dying from this,” Walsh said.
VIDEO: Agencies push for regional medical examiner’s office to help reduce autopsy backlog
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