Behind the Investigation with Atlanta News First

Atlanta News First Investigates reviewed reports for people taking Ozempic, Wegovy or compounded semaglutide. There were 262 self-reported cases mentioning suicide attempts, ideation, threats, behavior, treatment; or depression.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/11/fda-evaluating-miracle-weight-loss-drugs-like-ozempic-suicide-risk/

 A metro Atlanta mother who was seemingly targeted in a drug case as part of an effort to be denied custody of her daughter has now been granted full temporary custody.

On Friday, a Spalding County Superior Court granted an emergency motion for full custody filed by Macy Jones, who was the target of an anonymous tip that led to the investigation. Judge Ben Coker granted Jones “sole custody on a temporary basis” of Jones’ and Tyler Andrews’ now-four-year-old daughter.

Andrews will have “approximately one hour” of “supervised visitation” every other Sunday. Previously, the couple had joint legal custody.

Jones filed an emergency motion for full custody within hours after Atlanta News First Investigates told her about the case and sent her a copy of the internal investigation. Because it’s a public record, we offered to share the investigative file with both Jones and Andrews when separately asking them for interviews about its contents.

Andrews, as originally reported by Atlanta News First Investigates and Chief Investigative Reporter Brendan Keefe, gave an anonymous tip to Kris Voyles who was, at that time, commander of a Spalding County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Unit.

Innocent mom wants to thank police who turned in their own commander

The sheriff’s internal investigation determined that Voyles assigned his drug agents to set up surveillance on Jones’ griffin home to help his friend, Andrews, in a custody case.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/26/drug-unit-commander-fired-after-anonymous-tip-traced-father-targets-child/

Although he’s retired, Robert Elder feels like he’s taken on a new job: fighting for his home in which he’s invested more than 50 years of equity.

In a lawsuit, Elder, 85, claims his southwest Atlanta home has been stolen from him by a stepson from his first marriage, Torrey Elder.

Last year a new deed was filed on Robert Elder’s house; not once but, according to records, three times. The first was filed in July; the second, in August and labelled “corrective deed;” and a third in September.

All the deeds transferred Robert Elder’s home from his ownership to former stepson Torrey. However, none of the signatures match the way Robert signs his name, according to other official documents. Torrey claims his dad did transfer the home over to him. Adding, the 85-year-old is “lying.”

A series of Atlanta News First investigations have shown that under current Georgia law, no identification is required to file property paperwork in the clerk’s office. No one has to prove they own the property.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/04/85-year-olds-home-stolen-name-allegedly-forged-multiple-deeds/

A joint investigation by Atlanta News First and Grist uncovered dozens of people who worked at a metro Atlanta warehouse who claimed in a lawsuit their former employer exposed them to a cancer-causing toxin for years.

Many of the former workers now suffer from severe illness. At least four have died. The warehouse is located in Lithia Springs, Georgia. It’s owned by the ConMed Corporation, which stores medical devices sterilized with ethylene oxide, a hazardous, colorless gas.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says prolonged exposure to the toxin causes cancer and tumors.

According to a Cobb County lawsuit, the process starts at a sterilization facility owned by Sterigenics located near Smyrna, Georgia. According to the company’s website, it sterilized “more than 300 million critical medical products and devices” with the gas at its facility since April 2020.

The sterilized products are then trucked 12 miles away to ConMed’s nearly 300,000-square-foot warehouse, a facility the size of five football fields.

While there, the remaining ethylene oxide seeps off the boxes of medical equipment that have been treated with the chemical, allegedly exposing workers.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/29/cancer-stricken-workers-claim-company-exposed-them-toxic-gas/

Guardrails are intended to keep drivers safe in case of an accident and to prevent vehicles from oncoming traffic or hitting something. But when the barriers are damaged or defective, they can’t protect drivers.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/03/07/unguarded-gdots-failure-repair-road-safety-barriers-put-lives-risk/

How could a safety requirement end up killing more children than it would save?

The answer to that question has allowed parents to carry babies and toddlers on their laps at 35,000 feet and more than 500 miles per hour for decades. There is also no airfare cost for a lap baby.

Since 1995, the Federal Aviation Administration has relied on multiple studies showing a safety-restraint requirement for children under two on commercial aircraft would lead to many more highway deaths if parents choose to drive instead of fly.

In the meantime, the FAA strongly recommends parents buy a ticket for their babies. “The safest place for your child under the age of two on a U.S. airplane is in approved child restraint system…not in your lap,” it said.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/12/lap-babies-still-allowed-planes-after-door-plug-blowout/

New details have surfaced involving a case about a Georgia woman accused of marrying a man after he was found mentally incompetent.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/21/starved-man-returned-family-wake-marriage-fraud-claims/

A metro Atlanta mother is now seeking full custody after Atlanta News First Investigates tells her of an attempt to have her arrested a year earlier. But where did the anonymous tip come from?

Here is the full audio of a police major interviewing his lieutenant about the anonymous tip's source.

 Brenda Booth was still mourning the loss of her beloved sister, Claudia Marie, when she found out her sister had transferred her home’s deed to a private company on April 26, 2022.

“Uh, she can’t sign a deed three months after she died,” Booth recalled.

Families such as Booth’s say metro Atlanta law police are not criminally pursuing cases of stolen homes, which is all part of a troubling trend of deed theft in Georgia.

Claudia Marie died in 2022 after a long period of declining health. While Booth was preparing for her sister’s demise, she could not anticipate what happened afterward.

Booth sought the help of probate court attorney Daniel Kalamaro to handle her late sister’s assets. Among those assets was a Clayton County home in the unincorporated community of Rex.

“It’s usually a fairly routine process: gather the assets, gather the debts, identify the creditors and make your disbursements and away you go,” Kalamaro explained. “That did not happen here.”

“It’s been a doozie.”

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/12/if-your-home-gets-stolen-will-police-investigate-this-family-says-no/

A nationwide shortage of ADHD medication has been limiting the supply of Adderall for almost a year and a half.

While the shortage’s primary culprit was believed to be supply chain issues, a new study is revealing another cause: an increase in diagnoses among adult women; in fact, the number of women being diagnosed with ADHD has nearly doubled in the last few years.

That’s according to a new study from JAMA Psychiatry, which revealed prescriptions for ADHD medication have jumped by more than 14% since the start of the pandemic.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/02/19/adhd-diagnoses-increase-adderall-shortage-continues/