With the number of people dying as a result of opioid overdoses skyrocketing, the Delaware County Heroin Task Force is taking action. NBC10's Tracy Davidson sits down with Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan to discuss how they are educating students and using a mobile van to collect unwanted prescription drugs.

An investigation is underway after a woman was found dead in a vehicle parked in the drive-thru of a Wendy’s restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia Tuesday. 

The 57-year-old woman was found unresponsive in the rear passenger side of a car that was in the drive-thru of the Wendy’s located on the 2300 block of Cottman Avenue at 2:54 p.m. Investigators say she had been dead for “some time” before medics arrived.

Police have not revealed the woman’s identity and no arrests have been made.

It was a spectacle few people had the opportunity to witness on May 7, 1896, but that didn't stop them of gathering outside the Moyamensing Prison at 13th Street and Passyunk Avenue.

"Thousands of people were at the intersection," according to author and Holmes expert Matt Lake.

The hanging death of H.H. Holmes was supposed to bring closure to decades of alleged atrocities and crimes that spanned a good part of the United States and into Canada. He’s known as America’s first serial killer.

Licensed professional counselor Jennifer Murphy has studied serial killers. She says, “He was one the worst that I’ve ever seen.”

Some estimates have his death toll around 200 but Holmes was only charged and convicted of one murder. At one point, he confessed to 27 killings, only to recant, saying he only accidentally killed two people.

A life-long liar, Holmes is best known for his “Murder Castle” in Chicago. He built the hotel equipped with secret rooms, chambers and a spot dissections in the basement. With visitors from around the globe visiting the city’s World’s Fair in 1893, Holmes’ unwitting guests checked in but some never left.

“He’d wind up putting them into an airtight room and turning the gas on in there until they suffocated,” Lake said.

It’s believed Holmes sold his victims’ bodies, organs and bones. According to Rider University Professor Joe Wojie the going rate was about $8 to $10 a body.

"At a time when a Union soldier is pulling in about $13 a month. Porters loading and unloading ships are making about 5 cents an hour. Enterprising young men, not afraid to get their hands dirty could pull in, God, $8 a fresh body,” he said.

After the World’s Fair, Holmes was on the move. He is known to have traveled to the Dallas area and St. Louis but he and his swindles wound up in Philadelphia. The visit didn’t go as planned.

Lake calls it “a tactical error.”

Holmes convinced his business partner Benjamin Pitezel to fake his own death in order to get a $10,000 life insurance payout. But instead of faking Pitezel’s death, Holmes killed him at their 1316 Callowhill Street office. 

He then went on the run. Police eventually caught up with him in Boston and he was sent back to face the murder charge in Philadelphia. Holmes’ was convicted and sentenced to death. The case was front page news in Philadelphia and across the country.

While in prison, Holmes cashed in on his fame. The publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer paid Holmes for a confession. In it, the murderer claimed he killed 27 people, but in his memoir Holmes changed his story.

“So admitted to committing 27 murder, and right before his execution, says 'I killed two people. I deserve to die, I guess,'” Lake said.

Holmes was hanged on May 7, 1896. He was granted one last wish. It is believed that Holmes was buried in concrete. Lake believes, “There’s two reasons. He knows what people can do to cadavers and he doesn’t want to done to him. And two, is to conceal his identity.”

Number two plays into a Holmes mystery more than 100 years old. “There was a theory almost immediately, one of these conspiracy theories that arises, that maybe he faked his death.”

While most experts we spoke with don’t believe it, Holmes ancestors want to be sure. The infamous murderer’s family in late 2016 petitioned a Delaware County Court to exhume H.H. Holmes’ remains.

According to court documents, family lore indicates that Holmes “…managed to escape through some subterfuge and that someone else was hanged and buried at the grave site...”

A newspaper account from 1896 makes the same claim. In it, Holmes conned another prisoner to take his place while the killer escaped to South America. Oddly enough, the person quoted in the article is someone Holmes confessed to killing years earlier.

Lake says, “It’s very tempting! Because this guy was a consummate trickster!”

Forensic scientist Arthur Young is not involved in the exhumation but says as long as the remains have been protected over the years, those digging should find usable DNA samples, possibly a tooth.

“DNA is actually quite stable. It can survive for decades, even millennia,” according to Young.

Regardless of what is or is not found, Philadelphia continues to play a major role in the case of America’s first serial killer.

“We caught him. And we got the body. He’d have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those darn Philly kids!” Lake says.

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It was a spectacle few people had the opportunity to witness on May 7, 1896, but that didn't stop them of gathering outside the Moyamensing Prison at 13th Street and Passyunk Avenue.

"Thousands of people were at the intersection," according to author and Holmes expert Matt Lake.

The hanging death of H.H. Holmes was supposed to bring closure to decades of alleged atrocities and crimes that spanned a good part of the United States and into Canada. He’s known as America’s first serial killer.

Licensed professional counselor Jennifer Murphy has studied serial killers. She says, “He was one the worst that I’ve ever seen.”

Some estimates have his death toll around 200 but Holmes was only charged and convicted of one murder. At one point, he confessed to 27 killings, only to recant, saying he only accidentally killed two people.

A life-long liar, Holmes is best known for his “Murder Castle” in Chicago. He built the hotel equipped with secret rooms, chambers and a spot dissections in the basement. With visitors from around the globe visiting the city’s World’s Fair in 1893, Holmes’ unwitting guests checked in but some never left.

“He’d wind up putting them into an airtight room and turning the gas on in there until they suffocated,” Lake said.

It’s believed Holmes sold his victims’ bodies, organs and bones. According to Rider University Professor Joe Wojie the going rate was about $8 to $10 a body.

"At a time when a Union soldier is pulling in about $13 a month. Porters loading and unloading ships are making about 5 cents an hour. Enterprising young men, not afraid to get their hands dirty could pull in, God, $8 a fresh body,” he said.

After the World’s Fair, Holmes was on the move. He is known to have traveled to the Dallas area and St. Louis but he and his swindles wound up in Philadelphia. The visit didn’t go as planned.

Lake calls it “a tactical error.”

Holmes convinced his business partner Benjamin Pitezel to fake his own death in order to get a $10,000 life insurance payout. But instead of faking Pitezel’s death, Holmes killed him at their 1316 Callowhill Street office. 

He then went on the run. Police eventually caught up with him in Boston and he was sent back to face the murder charge in Philadelphia. Holmes’ was convicted and sentenced to death. The case was front page news in Philadelphia and across the country.

While in prison, Holmes cashed in on his fame. The publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer paid Holmes for a confession. In it, the murderer claimed he killed 27 people, but in his memoir Holmes changed his story.

“So admitted to committing 27 murder, and right before his execution, says 'I killed two people. I deserve to die, I guess,'” Lake said.

Holmes was hanged on May 7, 1896. He was granted one last wish. It is believed that Holmes was buried in concrete. Lake believes, “There’s two reasons. He knows what people can do to cadavers and he doesn’t want to done to him. And two, is to conceal his identity.”

Number two plays into a Holmes mystery more than 100 years old. “There was a theory almost immediately, one of these conspiracy theories that arises, that maybe he faked his death.”

While most experts we spoke with don’t believe it, Holmes ancestors want to be sure. The infamous murderer’s family in late 2016 petitioned a Delaware County Court to exhume H.H. Holmes’ remains.

According to court documents, family lore indicates that Holmes “…managed to escape through some subterfuge and that someone else was hanged and buried at the grave site...”

A newspaper account from 1896 makes the same claim. In it, Holmes conned another prisoner to take his place while the killer escaped to South America. Oddly enough, the person quoted in the article is someone Holmes confessed to killing years earlier.

Lake says, “It’s very tempting! Because this guy was a consummate trickster!”

Forensic scientist Arthur Young is not involved in the exhumation but says as long as the remains have been protected over the years, those digging should find usable DNA samples, possibly a tooth.

“DNA is actually quite stable. It can survive for decades, even millennia,” according to Young.

Regardless of what is or is not found, Philadelphia continues to play a major role in the case of America’s first serial killer.

“We caught him. And we got the body. He’d have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those darn Philly kids!” Lake says.

A retired Burlington County police officer is working to solve the cold case of a teen girl who went missing 43 years ago.

Margaret Ellen Fox of Burlington, New Jersey was 14-years-old when she advertised for a baby-sitting job in June of 1974. She received a response to the ad from a man who called himself John Marshall. The man told Fox he needed a babysitter for the following weekend but their meeting was delayed several times. Investigators say he finally told the teen he would meet her in a red Volkswagen Beetle and gave her a telephone number to reach him. That number was ultimately traced to a public phone booth at a supermarket in Lumberton, New Jersey.

On June 24, 1974, Fox planned to go to High and west Broad streets in Mount Holly, New Jersey to have an interview with Marshall. She left a note at her home letting her parents know where she was going and then went to the bus stop with her sibling before going on the bus by herself. Witnesses also told investigators they saw her near Mill and High streets after she got off the bus in Mount Holly. She was never seen or heard from again.

After Fox’s disappearance, several parents in the area reported someone had tried to lure their daughters to fake job offers. In 1976, a person confessed to being involved in Fox’s disappearance. Investigators later determined it was a hoax however.

More than four decades later her case remains unsolved. Retired Willingboro officer Michael D’Alesio has launched a new investigation he’s conducting for free.

“If this woman is alive, somewhere somehow this newscast will get to her, someone is going to see it,” D’Alesio said.

D’Alesio spoke with Jack McBride and Leonard Burr, two retired Burlington City detectives who worked on the initial case.

“I interviewed all the people that were on the bus and showed them pictures of her,” Burr said.

Fox’s dental record went missing and the agencies involved in the initial investigation, including state and federal prosecutors, didn’t share information.

“Back then you had, the FBI was a separate entity,” Burr said. “They didn’t cooperate with nobody.”

Police are also working with no DNA and little physical evidence. Things that are common during modern investigations such as surveillance video, the Internet or social media, weren’t around in 1974.

Fox’s parents are both deceased though her siblings are still alive. D’Alesio is hoping he can bring closure to her family.

“Could it be solved?” D’Alesio asked. “Sure.”

Fox is described as a white female with brown hair, blue eyes and freckles. At the time of her disappearance two of her top front right teeth were missing and she wore eyeglasses with hexagonal lenses, gold wire frames and broken-off temple and nose pierces. She also stood between 5-foot-2 and 5-foot-3 and weighed 105 pounds at the time of her disappearance.

She was last seen wearing a light blue floral-patterned blouse squared at the top and flared at the waist, a black and white checkered waist-length jacket, a size 34B brassiere, maroon flared jeans with a yellow patch on one knee, brown sandals with a heel strap, a gold necklace with flowers and a blue stone on it and a gold charm bracelet with a round blue stone. She was also carrying an eyeglass case with a Huckleberry Hound design.

If you have any information on the case, please call Burlington City Police at 609-386-3300.

School is out of session which is music to the ears of many children. For some, however, no school means less food. 

School programs, such as the National School Lunch Program, often provide affordable or free lunches throughout the school year, but when school comes to a close, so do the programs. 

The Food Bank of South Jersey is reaching out to those kids with its Bus Stop Cafe. 

The Bus Stop Cafe will go to the children carrying FBSJ staff and food. It will be going to four different locations in Salem County, and will be making stops every day.

In 2016, the Bus Stop Cafe was modified to not only provide food but a place for kids to eat lunch.

“On behalf of Betty Zipf, who championed this project, we are thrilled to support a program providing children with an opportunity to eat and enjoy their meals in a safe and friendly environment,” said Kathleen Schroeder, Trustee of the Peter G. Schlotterer and Elizabeth M. Zipf Charitable Trust, a group that helped to reconstruct the bus.

Bus Stop Cafe will also be providing over 6,000 books from First Book.

It is also providing a little extra motivation for kids to get their daily sustenance. Kids will get a stamp for visiting the bus ten times and are then entered to win four Philadelphia Eagles regular season tickets. 

The Bus Stop Cafe is an extension of the FBSJ Summer Meals Program which is expecting to deliver a half million meals to 8,000 low-income kids by September 1. 

A popular pagoda in Reading is known for its views but has recently become a place for partying. Fed up neighbors have complained to the city and NBC10's Steven Fisher takes us through possible solutions to the problem.

A store clerk was caught on camera snatching a gun from an armed robber in Atlantic City.

The unidentified robber entered the Pacific Food Market on Pacific Avenue Monday around 7:45 p.m. Surveillance video captured the robber pointing a loaded rifle at one of the store clerks. Suddenly the clerk grabbed the rifle and yanked it out of the suspect’s hands. The suspect then fled the scene.

“He feels his fingers are not on the trigger and that’s why he grabbed the gun from his hand,” the store owner, Antique Khan, told NBC10.

Khan also said his store was robbed less than a month ago. During that incident a robber stole about $500 in cash.

Atlantic City Police said that while the clerk was brave they also don’t recommend anyone do what he did when in a similar situation.

“There was a round in the chamber,” Atlantic City Police Sergeant Kevin Fair said. “Obviously the gun could have gone off and injured the clerk. Our recommendation is to comply with the individual and as soon as possible call 911.”

No one was injured during the incident. Police continue to search for the robber.

A local man was one of five marines who saved a woman's life after they found her on the ground hyperventilating while hiking on Mount Fuji. The marines used t-shirts and walking sticks to create a makeshift stretcher and then carried her down the mountain to get medical assistance. NBC10 spoke with Marine Lance Cpl. Antonio Martinez about the rescue.

A local expert says he has new evidence debunking a photo that some have claimed shows Amelia Earhart alive after her plane disappeared. NBC10's Brandon Hudson has the details.

Someone shooting a paintball gun struck four people outside a Southwest Philadelphia home Thursday.

Three women, aged 31, 34 and 47, were sitting on a porch on Woodland Avenue near 50th Street at 4:20 p.m. when a dark sedan with four men inside pulled up and someone began firing a paintball gun, Philadelphia Police said Monday.

Two women on the porch as well as two individuals on the street were hit. While, another woman on the porch was unharmed, police said.

Investigators didn't reveal the extent of any injuries and didn't reveal if anyone was the intended target.

The sedan had silver window trim and could possibly be an Infiniti with a partial Pennsylvania license plate with letters "KJ".

If you have any information please call 215-686-8477 or click here.

Here are the 10 things you need to know to start your day from your friends at NBC10.

TODAY'S TOP STORY 

Person of Interest in Missing Men Case Released on Bail: The man named as a person of interest in the disappearance of four young men in Bucks County, Pennsylvania was released from jail Tuesday night. Cosmo DiNardo, 20, who was being held in the Bucks County Jail on an unrelated gun charge, was released after his father posted 10 percent of $1 million bail. Prosecutors believe DiNardo may have information about the vanishing of four men whose disappearance has sparked an intense hunt over recent days including an exhaustive inspection of a 90 acre farm in Solebury Township.

• MORE ON THE SEARCH
  

YOUR FIRST ALERT FORECAST  

Wednesday could see a chance of showers later in the day and it is expected to be hot with temperatures in the 90s. Thursday is expected to be hot with temperatures inching toward 100 degrees. Thunderstorms are possible for Thursday evening into Friday. The showers and thunderstorms are expected to continue Friday and cool temperatures down to the 80s. Saturday, Sunday and Monday are expected to be sunny with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s. Get your full NBC10 First Alert forecast here.

WHAT YOU MISSED YESTERDAY

Woman Found Dead in Car in Wendy's Drive-Thru: An investigation is underway after a woman was found dead in a vehicle parked in the drive-thru of a Wendy’s restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia Tuesday. The 57-year-old woman was found unresponsive in the rear passenger side of a car that was in the drive-thru of the Wendy’s located on the 2300 block of Cottman Avenue at 2:54 p.m. Investigators say she had been dead for “some time” before medics arrived. A security guard on the property told NBC10 the woman was being driven to the hospital by a family member but passed away while inside the car. Police have not confirmed this however or released the woman's identity. No arrests have been made.

• MORE ON THE DISCOVERY
  

AROUND THE WORLD

Trump Sued for Blocking Critics on Twitter: First Amendment advocates sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying it is unconstitutional to block his critics from following him on Twitter. The Manhattan federal court lawsuit from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University cited seven individuals rejected by Trump or his aides after criticizing the president. Besides Trump, the lawsuit also named as defendants White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Dan Scavino, White House director of social media. Jameel Jaffer, the institute's director, said dozens of people reached out after his organization told the White House three weeks ago that it wasn't permitted to block individuals from following the president's 8-year-old @realdonaldtrump account. Trump doesn't seem to be the only politician trying to limit his audience. Jaffer said numerous people have said they were blocked from the accounts of Republican and Democratic politicians after posting critical comments.

• MORE ON THE LAWSUIT
  

Retired NJ Officer Works to Solve Cold Case: A retired Burlington County police officer is working to solve the cold case of a teen girl who went missing 43 years ago. Margaret Ellen Fox of Burlington, New Jersey was 14-years-old when she advertised for a baby-sitting job in June of 1974. She received a response to the ad from a man who called himself John Marshall. The man told Fox he needed a babysitter for the following weekend but their meeting was delayed several times. Investigators say he finally told the teen he would meet her in a red Volkswagen Beetle and gave her a telephone number to reach him. That number was ultimately traced to a public phone booth at a supermarket in Lumberton, New Jersey. On June 24, 1974, Fox planned to go to High and west Broad streets in Mount Holly, New Jersey to have an interview with Marshall. She left a note at her home letting her parents know where she was going and then went to the bus stop with her sibling before going on the bus by herself. Witnesses also told investigators they saw her near Mill and High streets after she got off the bus in Mount Holly. She was never seen or heard from again.

• MORE ON THE COLD CASE
  

SPORTS SPOT

Flyers Sign Laughton: The Flyers re-signed center Scott Laughton to a two-year deal. Get your full sports news at CSNPhilly.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

See more Top News Photos here.

THROUGH IGER'S EYES

@rchunta captured this cool image at Eakins Oval.

Have an awesome Instagram photo you'd like to share? Tag it with #NBC10Buzz.

TODAY'S VIRAL VIDEO

Check out this Korean street food: Click here to watch.

Dying Judge Officiates Daughters Wedding: A dying judge who had vowed to officiate his daughter's wedding was able to keep his lifelong promise — from his hospital bed. Twenty-seven-year-old Casey Kapalko and her partner, Stephanie, were married April 15 by Casey's father, Monmouth Superior Court Judge Paul Kapalko, in the intensive care unit of a New Jersey hospital. The Asbury Park Press reports he was diagnosed with a rare cancer in 2011 and was originally given four or five years to live. Read more.

That's what you need to know. We've got more stories worthy of your time in the Breakfast Buzz section. Click here to check them out. 

Gunmen opened fire on two women as they parked a pickup truck near their North Philadelphia home overnight, leaving both women dead.

Medics and police arrived on the 3000 block of N Lawrence Street just after midnight Wednesday to find a 28-year-old woman in the driver seat and a 19-year-old woman in the passenger seat of the running Toyota pickup, Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said. Both women were shot multiple times in the head and body.

“The shooter or shooters fired multiple shots into the passenger side,” Small said.

Medics pronounced both women dead on the scene.

The gunfire possible came from a passing car. Witnesses told police they saw a vehicle pull off down Lawrence Street after the shooting, investigators said.

It was unclear if the women  – believed to have resided in the same home – were the intended targets.

“Right now we don’t have a clear motive for this homicide,” Small said.

Distraught loved ones were on the scene after the shooting as police searched for clues on the residential block.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Philadelphia Police.

Summer is that time a year where brown ants seem to invade homes. This is because ants seek out moisture. They start outside your home and then come inside to the kitchen and bathrooms, where the water is.

A young boy from New Jersey who had just celebrated his 11th birthday died while at a summer camp on Tuesday, police said.

Daniel Beer, of Norwood, was attending Camp Nah-Jee-Wah in Milford, Pennsylvania, when he experienced gastrointestinal symptoms on Sunday night, camp administrators said.

The camp infirmary initially treated Beer, then transferred him to a local hospital Monday morning when his condition worsened, the camp director said.

Beer was pronounced dead at Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis, officials said. He had just turned 11 on July 4.

Mark Keyes, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Police, said there is nothing suspicious about the boy’s death at this point but that every death is treated as a concern, especially that of an 11-year-old boy.

The Jewish sleepaway camp is part of the New Jersey Y Camps organization.

Leonard Robinson, the executive camp director of New Jersey Y Camps, offered his condolences in a statement.

“There are no words to describe the sudden loss of a young life. As we grieve together, please be assured we will be offering our full support to the family who has lost a son and to our camp community who has lost a fellow camper,” Robinson said.

The camp has provided grief counselors for the campers and staff.

A full autopsy report is pending. 

CORRECTION:

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Daniel Beer's last name. 

A plan to build a "super" Wawa featuring gasoline will go before the zoning board in Horsham, Pennsylvania Wednesday. The building of the gas pumps are in a residential zone and there has been some strong public opposition.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will speak at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women this fall.

Obama will speak Oct. 3 at the event at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

Conference board president Leslie Stiles says the group is "honored and thrilled" that Obama will speak at the 14th annual conference.

The Brandywine Valley SPCA in New Castle, Delaware is still recovering after a deadly crash into its building. SPCA employees spoke with NBC10's Vai Sikahema about what they are doing to get back on track.