Multiple overdose deaths reported in six months at home near Zebulon

Neighbors said Friday they've had a bad feeling about things going on inside 2312 Baucatcher Lane.

"They were really sketchy people," said Shawn Stovall, who lives on the cul-de-sac off N.C. Highway 97 just west of Zebulon.

Teressa Hedgepeth, 50, was found unresponsive in an upstairs bedroom of the home on Oct. 9, according to search warrants.

The homeowner, Kenneth Jerome Cox, told deputies that Hedgepeth had gone out for a while, returned home, went into the bathroom, injected something and collapsed, the search warrants state.

"I looked out the window and said, 'Oh my God, there really are a lot of cop cars,' and I was kind of scared," Stovall said of that night. "I was like, 'Oh my God, what is happening?'"

Authorities said Hedgepeth died of a heroin overdose – and she wasn't the first to do so in Cox's home.

According to search warrants, a man died there in April of what investigators suspect was an overdose, and Lana Jacobs died of a heroin overdose on Aug. 1.

"It makes you very nervous that people are dying across the street," Stovall said.

Following Hedgepeth's death, deputies seized bindles of heroin from a purse; bags of assorted medication from both the master bedroom and master bathroom; oxycodone pills, syringes and needles from a refrigerator; a bag of cocaine inside an aspirin bottle; a bag of hypodermic needles; two containers of razor blades; two rifles, a shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver; and ammunition for the various weapons.

Other drugs were seized from the house following Jacobs' death in August, according to a search warrant.

Cox, 57, remains in the Wake County jail on charges of maintaining a dwelling for the use of controlled substances, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a firearm by a felon.

He hasn't been charged in any of the three deaths that occurred in his home.

Wake County Sheriff's Office investigators couldn't be reached Friday to comment on the case.