Chapter 2: "Pulaski's Own" - Septic (The Roanoke Times)

Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles

"The people searching for Noah don’t know much about the child’s parents, other than Ashley White’s history with drug addiction. For many, that was enough."

With "Late Edition Crime Beat Chronicles" we're presenting notable true crime stories, as reported by journalists for the dozens of various Lee-Enterprises owned publications from around America.

For this latest season, we wanted to highlight a series from The Roanoke Times that was first reported and produced in 2018 by journalists Jacob Demmitt and Robby Korth.

A 5-year-old child went missing in Dublin, Va., in spring 2015. When his body was discovered days later in the family's septic tank, the mother was put on trial both by the court system, as well as social media, where misinformation, accusations and vengeance-fueled comments spread unchecked.

It's a heartbreaking and tragic story, but Roanoke Times reporters Jacob Demmitt and Robby Korth went to great lengths to present an honest and well-rounded narrative that explores the ways a community failed one of their own while also touching on broader implications like the effects of Facebook, the stigma of drug addiction in rural America and the distortion of facts.

Links:
Roanoke Times reporters make podcast to revisit Noah Thomas case
Photo: The Train

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