A third detainee has died this year after being booked into the Buncombe County Detention Facility.
Amy Beth Owenby died Aug. 31 at Mission Hospital, according to a release from the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office. The 42-year-old Hendersonville resident was transported there after showing “signs of medical distress” at the Buncombe County jail Aug. 24.
Owenby had been arrested earlier on Aug. 24 by the Black Mountain Police Department on a felony charge of drug possession and multiple other drug-related misdemeanors. Although she was released on a $4,000 bond Aug. 25, she remained hospitalized at Mission until her death.
According to the Black Mountain Police Department’s report, Owenby was arrested with “a small scale with white residue,” a ball
of burnt wire mesh, a glass bong, and $42 dollars in cash. That report did not list any specific type or quantity of controlled substance, but the magistrate’s order issued after her arrest charged her with possessing cocaine, 42 pills of clonazepam, and four bars’ worth of Xanax.
The N.C. State Bureau of Investigation will review the circumstances of Owenby’s death, as is standard practice for detainee deaths in North Carolina. Citing that open investigation, BCSO spokesperson Matt Marshall declined to share additional details about the case.
Previous deaths of Buncombe County detainees this year include Douglas Michael Stroupe, whom the BCSO said died by suicide Aug. 24, and Grey Hester, who died after experiencing medical issues Jan. 24. In 2025, two Buncombe detainees died in connection with drug use.
Buncombe’s jail has struggled with detainee safety in recent years. A 2022 Citizen Times investigation found that the county facility had the highest death rate of any jail in the state.
And earlier this year, Sheriff Quentin Miller asked other local sheriffs to take Buncombe detainees, citing persistent overcrowding. “Safety is what is the concern — safety of the detainees and safety of the deputies who work there,” Miller told WLOS in June.
Daniel Walton is the City Government Watchdog Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email him at dwalton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Third Buncombe County jail detainee death this year under investigation
