The recent killing of a Raleigh private school teacher is renewing conversations about the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system.
What You Need To Know
A private school teacher’s brutal killing in her own home has reignited questions about a convicted, repeat violent offender could be living among the general population
A former warden said the problems of society, including people with severe mental health needs, are often laid at the feet of the criminal justice system
Court documents revealed an extensive history of crime and mental health issues for Ryan Camacho
Ryan Camacho, the man accused of killing Zoe Welsh, has a long criminal history.
Court documents show Camacho’s criminal history dates back to at least 2005, from misdemeanors to violent felonies.
He was released from the Wake County Detention Center in December after being found incompetent to stand trial.
A month later, Welsh, the Ravenscroft School teacher, was assaulted while calling 911 for help from her home.
She later died, and Camacho is now charged with murder.
A woman with years of experience in the state’s penal system spoke to Spectrum News 1 about why this happened and what needs to happen for these tragedies to stop.
“It’s almost like a circular conversation,” she said.
Bianca Harris knows the inner workings of the criminal justice system.
She’s a former warden of the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women. Now, she shares those insights with her students at Meredith College as the Director of the school’s criminal justice program. Harris said this case is reflective of an issue in society, over-balancing mental health treatment with legal consequences.
“What’s sad about it is, we come back to this unfortunate, repeated conversation as we react to repeated horrible crimes,” Harris said.
Which brings us to how Camacho was set free in the first place.
By early December 2025, Camacho had been in the custody of Wake County law enforcement for nearly four months on a string of misdemeanors.
A judge ordered a forensic evaluation to determine his competency and capacity to stand trial.
Court documents from Camacho’s attorney reveal a history of diagnosed mental health illness, that his mother had been appointed his legal guardian and that Camacho refused to speak to his attorney.
The forensic evaluator assigned to make an assessment couldn’t evaluate Camacho on two separate occasions at the detention center.
In her letter to the court, the forensic evaluator wrote she, “was unable to determine his capacity to proceed.” The judge in the case agreed.
During a December court hearing, it was determined that Camacho did not meet the standard for involuntary commitment.
The case was eventually dismissed.
Gov. Josh Stein continues to push for greater mental health care reform.
The state’s top leader talked about the need for change last October, weeks after a mass shooting in Southport left three people dead and almost two months after Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail train.
“The senseless murders raise real concerns for people all over the state. We all know that the vast majority of people with mental health challenges pose no risk to anyone other than potentially themselves, but we also know that some can. There are too many people in our communities with dangerous obsessions exhibiting threatening behaviors, who do pose risks to others,” the governor said at an announcement in Greenville about behavioral health urgent care centers.
At the same time, Harris said society needs to talk about the staffing in our mental health care system to provide quality care and keep people safe.
“There’s a parallel conversation that needs to happen in the mental health care world. Both worlds, criminal justice and the mental health treatment world, need more staff to address all the people that need to be addressed,” Harris said.
Spectrum News 1 did attempt to contact who we believe to be the mother of Ryan Camacho, but she could not be reached for comment at the time of this publication.