Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Rat baby better
The 15-month-old baby bitten by a rat at least 100 times in a Henderson County trailer is recovering in the hospital, WLOSer Holly Headache told us Friday night. But the question remains – what will happen to the poor child, who has come to be known simply as “rat baby”?
Holly had a solid report about what will happen next. First, she talked to the child’s parents and let them defend themselves. Video and photos show a garbage-strewn yard and old trailer. These people looked as though they lived one step away from the landfill. But the dad, a little pissed, said for all those who think we’re bad parents, “walk a mile in our shoes.” The parents say they’re cleaning their place up.
Here’s what we say back: even if Ashvegas was poor as shit and living in a shit trailer, we could still find a way to shit away from the trailer and take the garbage to the curb instead of throwing it out the front door.
Holly says the parents say they checked on their baby, who has cerebral palsy, just 15 minutes before they heard screams and found the child bitten up. The Holly plays us some of the 911 calls. You can hear the dad tell emergency workers to hurry up “because he’s chewed up bad.”
So what’s next? Holly runs us through the possibilities after talking with Henderson County DSS. The DSS director says they’ll take the case to court and say the child was hurt, they’re investigating, and they should have custody until the investigation is complete. No charges have been filed in this case.
DSS says they’ll try to find out if rat baby was hurt intentionally in any way and if there are any family members that can help. DSS says all officials have to be assured that the child will be “reasonably safe” from harm. The parents told Holly they expect to have their child back, and that they’ll keep the baby at some other location until they get their trailer cleaned up.
Death of an icon
Hugh Morton of Grandfather Mountain died Thursday night. The legend of a man will be missed.
Friday, Jon “Punnyman” Le went up to Grandfather Mountain and talked to family and visitors about Morton’s legacy. Morton dedicated his life to protecting beautiful Grandfather Mountain. He worked on any number of conservation issues, not the least of which was the worsening air quality in the mountains. He was a wonderful photographer. And, most important to us, he was the grandaddy of all Tar Heel fans. We can only hope to love and cheer on Tar Heel basketball the way Hugh did. Did we say he’ll be missed?
More burials
Mourners laid to rest Richard Fox, the Ingles truck driver who went missing after he crashed his truck down in Georgia. Also family and friends held visitation for the little toddler, Avery King, who died after getting run over by a nutjob in a McDonald’s parking lot.
More on Tiffany “Strangled with her bikini top” Souers
Michelle Boudin was back on the sensationalized story of the murder of a Clemson University student. And WLOSers make it worse by mentioning over and over again that the pretty blonde was “strangled with her bikini top.” We say, give it a rest. She’s dead, already.
So the so-called “news” on Friday was that prosecutors down in South Carolina say the murder was “sexually motivated.” Well no shit. Police released some surveillance video that showed a man with a bandana covering his entire head and the grill of a car. Police also hired a profiler, who says the killer is a white male, 18 to 25 years old, who will be acting unusually. They’re asking the public for help.
Rapist on the loose
Back in Ashvegas, Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan said people in Biltmore Park, where she and the rest of the WLOSer crew works, are still freaked out about a reported rape Thursday morning. Police say a woman was heading to the Biltmore YMCA to work out about 5:30 a.m. when a man with a knife ordered her back in her car, drove her to another location police wouldn’t say, and raped her. The woman drove herself to the hospital.
The cops released a composite drawing and have asked for some surveillance video from a nearby gas station. Ashvegas police will be patrolling the area more often and everybody’s on guard, Ryan said.
In other news…
A pickup truck went down an embankment Friday on the Blue Ridge Parkway. WLOS had video showing cops giving the driver a field sobriety test and picking up beer cans around the wrecked vehicle… A SUV ended up in the French Broad River after a guy said someone pulled out in front of him and he swerved off Lyman Street and ended up in the water… There was a shooting in Woodfin and the shooter is charged with attempted murder. One guy shot his neighbor over a trespassing dispute, cops said… And water meter readers in Hendersonville say snakes are hanging out in the cool, damp meter boxes. Snakes on a Meter! Yikes!
