'She should still be with us': Former colleague of Zoe Welsh remembers her as 'good friend'

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Days after Ravenscroft teacher Zoe Welsh was killed in her home during a reported break-in, an outpouring of support online has flooded social media posts of people reflecting on their memories of Welsh.

"I think we've got to all pull together as a community," said friend and former colleague Mary Craig Brown. "Sometimes life's tough. But I think we need to we just have to be thankful that God gave us Zoe for the time she gave us gave her to us."

Mary Craig Brown and Welsh both worked together at Ravenscroft from 2009-2019, with Welsh continuing after Brown's retirement.

"I'm just thankful that she was my friend and I'm going to miss her. Everybody wanted her. And she taught AP classes most of the time I'm pretty sure. And so a lot of kids didn't get to have her. But if they didn't get to have her, they still saw her in the hall and they still saw her in the lunchroom. Or still had conversations with her. And she was good to everybody."

Many comments of Welsh speak to her hard-to-miss and full-on-display of kindness that is unmatched.

"She was kind to everybody and it didn't matter where you were from, the color of your skin, how much money your family had. She was going to be your friend and she was going to be kind. And there's just not going to be anybody like Zoe. She was a very special person."

Brown hopes, despite the situation, that her friend's death will prompt change within the legal situation to help prevent this from happening again.

"It is an awful situation. What an awful way to die. And she just didn't didn't deserve any of that. And we have got to change our system. We've got to fix our system and help those that are mentally unstable," said Brown. "And something should have been done. You know, our system is broken and we've got to fix it. And it's going to take all of us to do it."

The suspect, 36-year-old Ryan Camacho, has been charged with murder and felony burglary.