A Durham woman tells WRAL News the man accused of killing a Raleigh teacher broke into her home twice, and she believes he should have been behind bars.
Michelle Potchak says Ryan Camacho broke into her Durham home twice: In 2021 and in 2024.
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The fingerprint dust still sits on her porch window frame, nearly five years after Ryan Camacho threw a rock through the glass.
Potchak was out of town at the time, and it was when her brother went into her home that he found a shattered window.
“All of a sudden, Ryan Camacho comes walking in the back door,” she said. “He takes one look at my brother and darts.”
Potchak said Camacho had been staying in there for days, piling up the Potchak’s electronics and money, even leaving behind his identification.
Camacho was charged with three felonies but pled guilty to two lesser misdemeanor charges.
Potchak shared her experience with the Durham District Attorney’s Office.
“They knew he had a drug problem so they wanted to try to get him assistance with that,” Potchak said. “They did eventually plead it down even after I told them I didn’t think that would help considering his previous record.”
Then, in 2024, Camacho broke in again, caught on camera by Potchak’s security system.
That time, he was charged with two misdemeanors.
Potchak says that crime was just days after Camacho had been released from jail in another case, and she argued to law enforcement that he should have been charged with felonies instead.
“I told them that this man has terrorized me and my family for the last six years,” Potchak said. “I don’t feel safe unless the man is in prison or in jail. These aren’t passive crimes. These are active, violent crimes, intended to terrorize.”
WRAL News has reached out to Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry with Potchak’s concerns about the handling of Camacho’s 2021 and 2024 cases. We have not yet heard back.
A Raleigh resident and father, Wes Phillips, told WRAL News that Camacho stalked, harassed and terrified his family for more than a year, forcing them to move twice. He said their pleas that something be done were unanswered.
“It's not like there weren’t signs,” Phillips said. “We were really adamant about the danger that we felt we were in, and perhaps other people were in, and it just wasn't taken seriously.”
Potchak believes if those cases had been handled differently, Zoe Welsh could still be alive.
“If he’d gotten that felony, would he have even been out to do the others, and this final one obviously,” Potchak added. “This is a massive failure of our justice system.”
WRAL News also reached out to the Durham District Attorney about Camacho's two 2025 breaking-and-entering cases, also in Potchak's neighborhood, and were told no comment by her office.
