Wilmington, NC – A family outing turned into a criminal investigation earlier this week after a North Carolina grandfather allegedly slipped pills into his granddaughters’ ice cream, prompting his arrest and a felony child abuse charge.
James Edwin Yokeley Jr., 66, was taken into custody after his two juvenile granddaughters discovered hard objects in their dessert from a Dairy Queen located on Oleander Drive. The children’s grandfather, Yokeley, had flagged down a Wilmington police officer near a Sheetz gas station on Shipyard Boulevard on Friday to report the incident, sparking an investigation that would later turn on him.
According to authorities, medical personnel evaluated both girls on the scene and determined that neither had ingested the pills. Initial field tests indicated that the substances were illegal narcotics, prompting their submission to the state lab for confirmatory analysis.
What began as a concerned report quickly unraveled. Surveillance footage reviewed by Wilmington Police detectives revealed that Yokeley himself had placed the pills into the ice cream. He was subsequently arrested and charged with felony contaminating food or drink with a controlled substance, felony child abuse, and felony drug possession.
Yokeley, a former local elections board member in New Hanover County, was booked into the New Hanover County Detention Center and later released on a $100,000 secured bond. Investigators have not released further details about a potential motive.
The pills were discovered to be MDMA, known more commonly as Molly.
The case remains under active investigation, and authorities have not ruled out additional charges.