Jekyll and Hyde: A survivor’s tale of domestic violence

The names of our sources were changed to protect their anonymity. She knew him before the drugs and the alcohol. She fell in love with the star basketball player with the world at his feet. All too quickly he turned into this person she had never seen before, pressuring her into partaking in hard drugs […]

Blunt force trauma: The Western Carolina drug trade

A tangible barrier of pungent, yellow smoke separates the two of us. Through the dissipating wall of smoke, I see him slump down into the sofa with the content look of someone who has become recently stoned. On him, it looks almost like an expression of freedom. “You a tits or ass kind of guy?” […]

WCU Snap-Booze, boobs, butts, and blunts

“WCU Snap” is Western Carolina University’s local snap story that students are using to display life at Western, which varies from pictures of the Smoky Mountains and events around campus to drugs, pornography, and illegal activity. WCU Snap is controlled by an anonymous, unauthorized source. WCU’s administration and campus police are not doing anything about it, because […]

Wrestling with faith

Billy Ketchersid almost lost his livelihood, his family, and his life to alcohol and drugs. He was on the fast track to a dead end lifestyle until his faith in God, combined with his love of professional wrestling, saved his life. William Wayne Ketchersid, 40, abused drugs from the age of 12 to the age […]