North Carolina
A North Carolina woman dies after going on a Vodou retreat in Haiti. Her son wants answers.

“My mom went down to Haiti, they did this last piece of the ceremony, and something sinister happened,” said Timothy Jackson.
A North Carolina man is asking for answers after his mom died while on a Vodou retreat in Haiti.
Dana Jackson, 51, wanted to become a Manbo priestess. A Manbo priestess “is a female ritual specialist in the Haitian Vodou tradition. Like her male counterpart, the oungan (or houngan), she performs ceremonies, initiations, healings, and divinations,” according to an article on the Harvard University website.
Vodou is an African religion and comes from the word Fon which means “God” or “Spirit” and “originated in the ancient kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Nigeria, Benin, and Togo)”, according to an article on the religion by PBS.org. Alternative spellings of the religion include Vodun and Vodoun, but not Voodoo. The spelling Voodoo is considered “the sensationalist and derogatory Western creation,” the article continues.
Her son, Timothy Jackson, told USA TODAY that this was something that she wanted to do and had been practicing for a few years prior to her trip to Haiti.
“Four years ago, my mom started to do a little bit of research on the African traditional spiritual belief systems and Vodou was a part of that,” he said. “She had kind of been on this path of just kind of doing research and practicing, or at least, just doing her due diligence as far as research is concerned.”
Jackson said that his mom left for Haiti on July 1 and was supposed to return to the United States on July 26. His mom traveled with a group of people who had joined a house in order to participate in the Vodou rituals.
“The people that she went down there with, their name is Sosyete and I believe that that means society in the Turkish language and Nago,” Jackson said. “These weren’t strangers that she went down there with. These are people that she’s built a relationship with.”
Jackson said the group recently went on a trip to Boston together in June.
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No communication was apart of the Vodou ceremony
During part of the Vodou ceremony, Jackson expected to not hear from his mom.
“If you do any research about that part of the ceremony, even just on Google, it’ll tell you, that’s very sacred and things of that nature,” he said. “So she sent me one last message on the 13th, and she said, ‘we will talk on the 21st going to church tomorrow.‘”
Jackson and his mom spoke every day. The no communication part was nerve-wrecking to him, but he wanted to respect his mother’s decision to participate in the ritual. In the last message he received from his mom on July 21 she asked him to, “pray for her.”
“That whole entire week just kind of low key, (I was) having anxiety because I’m not able to hear from her, and I know that this is a very important part of the ceremony,” he said. “On the 21st, I didn’t hear anything from her. I did reach out to her at about 5 p.m. on WhatsApp. I didn’t get any response.”
Mom doesn’t respond after Vodou ceremony; son finds out about her death
The next day, Jackson still did not get a message from his mom, and he began to worry.
“I woke up. I’m not gonna lie, I was in a little bit of a panic, because I felt like by now, she at least would have responded to my text,” he said.
Around 5 p.m. on July 22, his grandmother broke the news that his mom had died.
“The way she told me was, ‘your mom’s not coming back from Haiti.’ So I hung up the phone with her,” he said “I called her back. I asked her, ‘what did she mean?’ She said, ‘she’s not coming back from Haiti. She passed away.’ I hung up the phone. I called her again.”
After a lot of back and forth between Jackson and his grandmother, he called his grandfather, and he confirmed that his mom had died.
‘Something sinister happened’
In order to confirm his mother’s passing, Jackson reached out to one of the leaders of the group that went to Haiti with his mom. The first thing they asked him was, “how much did he know?”
“To be completely honest with you, my initial thought was my mom went down to Haiti, they did this last piece of the ceremony, and something sinister happened,” he said.
The person that spoke with him told him that his mom had gotten extremely sick during the ceremony. They told him that she kind of fainted. When she regained consciousness, she didn’t know where she was. When a member of the house asked her where she was, she said in Virginia, Jackson said.
However, Jackson said his family hadn’t lived in Virginia in over a year.
Jackson said they also told him that they brought her to the hospital. At the hospital, she started to have seizures, and they said she had a heart attack and a stroke.
“That was the initial story,” he said. “They said that my mom didn’t bring her medicine. So there was a red flag, because what medicine are you guys talking about? it sounds like they were trying to perpetuate a story.”
Jackson also was supposed to get an update on where his mom’s body is located on Aug. 16 but that still hasn’t happened.
“I haven’t heard anything, he said. “I don’t even think the U.S. Embassy got involved, or even received the necessary paperwork until about four days ago.”
USA TODAY reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, but they did not respond prior to publication.
Remembering Dana Jackson
Although Jackson’s mom had him at a young age, her goal was to work hard to create a better life for them.
In 1999, Jackson said that his mom took a job at a technology company that was based in Savannah, Georgia. In his mom’s role she was to help start the companies operations in the state. During their time in Georgia, Jackson remembers getting his own bathroom. bedroom, attending extracurricular activities and ultimately getting closer to his mom.
Years later he asked his mom why she decided to relocate.
“I asked her, many years later, ‘why did you decide to move down there?’ She said ‘Tim, I needed that time to learn how to become a mother to my son,’” he said.
Another memory that Jackson shared was in 2017 when his family took a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada where the two ended up meeting rapper Nelly. The rapper ended up turning around and talking to the two before he left the hotel, Jackson said.
“In Vegas, we were getting ready to check into our hotel, and Nelly was coming out. My mom looked at me, and I looked at her, and then we just both chased him,” he said. “That was just how in sync we were.”
GoFundMe created for Dana Jackson’s funeral costs
Jackson created a GoFundMe account for his mom’s funeral and additional costs that he will need in the future.
“(The GoFundMe was created for) funeral costs, any costs associated with bringing her body back,” he said. “I would like to do an autopsy. I’ve been quoted a price for that.”
His mom told him how she wanted her funeral to go.
“We had a conversation maybe six years ago where she told me she wanted to be cremated, and she told me what her last wishes were,” he said.
Dana Jackson was supposed to turn 52 on Sept. 13, Jackson said.
“We don’t know what happened in the last nine days, but whatever happened, my mom did not go to Haiti not to come back to the United States,” he said.

North Carolina
USDA terminates annual Hunger Survey as food banks see growing demand
RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is ending its annual survey that tracks hunger in the country, despite the rise in food costs.
Here in North Carolina, where more than 600,000 people face food insecurity, local organizations like The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina say the cuts could affect how they can serve families in the state.
At the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, dozens of volunteers spend hours packing boxes with bread, milk, meat and canned goods, some essentials for families who can’t afford to purchase them on their own.
Here in North Carolina, officials say over 600,000 people face food insecurity. That’s why staff and volunteers say the timing couldn’t be worse.
Volunteer Cathy Engel says it’s not just about packing the food, but building a connection with a family even if it’s brief.
“Meeting all the people that come in and talking to them, that’s what makes me want to continue to come,” Engel said.
She says that in her five years of service she’s seen the need for food increase, but supplies are decreasing.
“We’re much more limited in what we give out, and even what the food shelves are limited in, what they’re allowed to get from this distribution center,” she said.
Vice President Jason Kanawati Stephany agreed, saying that the USDA’s decision could cause more harm than good to communities in need.
“Our pantries are seeing near unprecedented need. So we don’t need that government data to validate that experience,” Kanawati Stephany said. “But here’s where the government data is vital. It’s vital for us to make decisions about where we invest our resources. And more importantly, it tells government leaders where resources and investments are needed.”
“Trends in the prevalence of food insecurity have remained virtually unchanged, regardless of an over 87% increase in SNAP spending between 2019-2023,” the USDA said in its announcement.
But volunteers aren’t giving up, and entire organizations like Blue Cross N.C. are sending employees to help meet the growing need.
Lori Taylor, health food director at Blue Cross N.C., said it’s important to step away from everyday tasks and give a helping hand.
“This is the way that we can all make an individual contribution together,” Taylor said.
Engel says they’ll continue to show up.
“It’s hard to be hopeful, but this place gives me hope,” she expressed.
In 2023, 47 million people lived in food-insecure households, according to the USDA. Of those, nearly 14 million were children.
The survey has been published annually for 30 years, throughout both Republican and Democratic administrations.
The last report is scheduled to be released on Oct. 22.
North Carolina
VP JD Vance is coming to NC this week to talk public safety

Tuesday, September 23, 2025 5:46PM
CONCORD, N.C. (WTVD) — Vice President JD Vance will visit North Carolina on Wednesday.
He will be in Concord to talk about public safety following the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska. This comes after the state Senate passed a reform bill called ‘Iryna’s Law,’ which would eliminate cashless bail and lays out new condition for pretrial release for certain violence offenses.
This will be Vance’s first trip to the Tar Heel state since becoming vice president.
Copyright © 2025 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
North Carolina
City leaders eye improvements to Raleigh’s Dix Park as DHHS moves out of park buildings

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — As the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services prepares to vacate several buildings at Dorothea Dix Park, the City of Raleigh is taking full control of the 308-acre property. City leaders say the future of the park is just beginning
Dix Park welcomed over 600,000 visitors between June and August, with guests from 42 states. It was the second most visited destination in North Carolina this summer, trailing only Wrightsville Beach.
City officials and the Dix Park Conservancy are now focused on the next phase of park improvements.
“During COVID, we learned that our parks became our sanctuaries of sanity,” said Raleigh City Council Member Mitchell Silver. “It’s where people go to feel mentally and physically healthy. We want that for our city.”
One of the park’s most notable additions this year was the opening of Gipson Play Plaza, now the largest adventure playground in the Southeast.
More upgrades are planned, including new public art installations and renovations to existing structures.
Ruffin Hall, president and CEO of the Dix Park Conservancy, outlined some of the upcoming enhancements.
“There’s lots of fun things going on at the park: House of Many Porches where you can go and grab a snack, renovating the Flowers Cottage next to Flowers Field,” Hall said. “We’re also looking at renovating the dog park and the trolls.”
With DHHS preparing to vacate state-owned buildings on the property, some structures will be demolished, while others may be retrofitted for new uses.
“To me, that’s a great opportunity, having a nice enclave of some market rate residential buildings,” Silver said. “Long-term leases or sales could generate money to reinvest in the park.”
Silver has seen this model succeed in other cities, where revenue from residential developments fully funded park improvements without relying on taxpayer dollars.
Plans also include a new entrance on South Saunders Street, and the city is exploring expanded public transportation options to better connect the park with downtown Raleigh.
Many of the park’s improvements have been made possible by a $75 million fundraising campaign led by the Conservancy.
“The City of Raleigh has some tremendous donors, civic-minded folks who made generous contributions,” Hall said. “That partnership with the city is what really made this happen — and that’s what makes Raleigh so special.”
Copyright © 2025 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
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