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Restaurant owner remains in critical condition after wreck

A woman critically injured in an auto crash remained in critical condition Thursday as family and friends rally in support of her recovery.

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BENSON, N.C. — A woman critically injured in an auto crash remained in critical condition Thursday as family and friends rally in support of her recovery.

Julia Murphy Raynor, 70, of Newton Grove, was injured Wednesday following a wreck in which police say Andrian Bermel Edwards intentionally swerved his car into the path of Raynor's SUV in an attempt to kill his girlfriend.

"It's shocking to hear it," said Frances Henderson, a longtime friend of Raynor and patron at the Meadow Village Restaurant in the Meadow community, near Benson.

Raynor has owned the restaurant for nearly 30 years and is known for her hospitality, giving and helping spirit and her award-winning pies.

"Everyone treated her as a friend, and she treated everyone as one" said J. B. Henderson, also a friend and customer at Meadow Village.

Family and friends have set up a Facebook page called "Praying for Julia Ann Raynor" and more than 500 people as of Thursday have posted their well-wishes and encouragement.

Raynor's family declined to comment on her condition Thursday but reportedly told a tow-truck driver that she is paralyzed from the waist down.

Edwards, 27, of 900 Lake Front Drive, Apt. E, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and misdemeanor child abuse.

Neither he, his girlfriend nor their child, who was also in the car, were seriously injured in the wreck.

Edwards was in the Wake County jail without bond Thursday evening.

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