Although Burke County and several of the municipalities within it already have ordinances against public camping, advocates for the unsheltered say a proposed statewide homeless encampment ban would only strain a community that’s already struggling — should lawmakers override Gov. Josh Stein’s veto.
Despite the packed courtroom on the morning of July 30, the sound of jangling chains echoed clearly down the halls and through the closed doors as two people charged with the murder of a Morganton couple were led in to face the judge.
For tens of thousands of hours each year, people struggling with mental health and substance use problems fill UNC Health Blue Ridge’s emergency department. Now, Burke County is moving forward with plans for a 16-bed crisis center designed to ease that burden and provide an adequate alternative to the hospital and the jail.
In the early hours of Monday morning, around 3:17 a.m., the Burke County Sheriff’s Office responded to a suspicious death on Barus Pond Loop in Valdese.
Two arrests resulted in the seizure of more than 27 pounds of methamphetamine last week, after Diamond Sharell Lipscomb and Jennifer Nicole Halstead each received trafficking charges following traffic stops.
When the federal government returned to business as usual in November 2025, legislators slipped a provision into the government reopening bill that started a ticking time bomb for the hemp industry, set to detonate in November 2026.
When the federal government returned to business as usual in November 2025, legislators slipped a provision into the government reopening bill that started a ticking time bomb for the hemp industry, set to detonate in November 2026.
Michael Wayne Gilley, 46, eluded Morganton Public Safety Officers on foot on June 18, following a vehicle pursuit that ended in a crash on Williams Farm Road, south of I-40.
On Sunday, June 14, around 8:30 p.m., officers with the Valdese Police Department located a deceased individual in the parking lot behind Rock Drug Store and First Citizens Bank on West Main Street.
Nearly two and a half hours after emergency responders were called to the rock face west of the Duke Energy water intake at Linville Dam, water rescue teams located and recovered the body of Austin Shyjuan Washington, 18, of Lincolnton, around 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 13.
Burke County’s Superior Court was back in session this past week, with new and returning faces appearing from behind the “Court Officials Only” door, jingling as the chains around their waists and ankles shifted in the quiet courtroom.
A man previously on Burke County’s Most Wanted List was arrested on June 7, when deputies with the Burke County Sheriff’s Office worked with Ledford’s Bail Bondsmen to locate Dylan Scott Smith, 24, of Morganton, at an address on New Orleans Boulevard.
On the morning of June 9, detention officers and medical personnel at the Burke County Jail initiated life-saving measures on an unresponsive inmate that was found in his cell around 5:30 a.m.
Michael James Moretz, the man accused of murdering Joseph Byrd and Michael Hallyburton on Aug. 31, 2025, appeared in Superior Court on Tuesday morning, his first procedural appearance since the state escalated the trial to the capital level.
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