Police ID South Carolina quadruple murder victims
HOLLY HILL, S.C. - Authorities have identified the victims of a quadruple homicide in South Carolina, and are still searching for the killer.
According to the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office, police were called to a rural home early Wednesday morning after someone coming to visit found 50-year-old Jerome Butler lying dead on the front lawn.
Inside, police found the bodies of 28-year-old Krystal Hutto, 17-year-old Shamekia Sanders and 14-year-old Tamara Perry. According to the county coroner, all four victims were shot in the head. An 8-year-old boy was found alive in the home with a gunshot wound. He was airlifted to an area hospital and is in critical condition.
Police have not yet said whether the victims are related or whether they all lived at the home. A sheriff's department spokesman told 48 Hours' Crimesider that as far as the sheriff could recollect there had been no previous police calls to the home.
According to the spokesman, after finding the bodies, police began a search for a 1990s green Mercedes that had recently been seen at the house. The car was found, burned out, about 15 miles away.
Police are calling the murders an isolated incident and say they do not believe that the community is in danger, but are asking anyone with information to come forward.
On Thursday, police arrested two men, including the father of the teenagers and young boy who were shot, on unrelated drug charges. According to a sheriff's office press release, investigators said the charges were levied after interviewing the men during the investigation into the murders.