South Carolina police say a woman’s husband killed her in their home and two other people in the house helped him hide her body.
Jessica Barnes, 20, was last seen by her mother on September 10. The Pendleton Police Department said in a statement on Wednesday that she had been reported missing.
She told cops that she hadn’t seen her daughter since August 1. WSPA is a local CBS station.
State police were called in to help with the investigation, which led to the finding of dead bodies in Twin Lakes, which is about 5 miles from Pendleton.
Tuesday, dental records showed that those were indeed Jessica Barnes’s remains.
Three people were caught and charged with killing Jessica Barnes by Wednesday. They were Barnes’ husband, Brandon Barnes, and two roommates, Kendall Mims and Victoria Tippett.
A police report says that Brandon Barnes killed Jessica Barnes on August 2 by “suffocating her with his arms.”
The statement said, “The defendant did admit to the murder after being told of Miranda.”
Tippett is charged with seeing the murder happen and helping Brandon Barnes get rid of the body of his wife.
There is evidence that Tippett did not tell police about the murder, and she “admitted to disposing of the victim’s body to obstruct justice of murder by defendant Brandon Barnes.”
“The defendant did admit to police what happened after being read Miranda rights,” the document says.
The affidavit said that Mims “did render assistance” to Brandon Barns “to avoid the consequences of his crime” by help him get rid of Jessica Barnes’ body.
An affidavit says that she also told detectives this was true. As stated in a different affidavit, Mims “had multiple opportunities to report the murder to law enforcement and did not do so.” She also helped Brandon Barnes get rid of Jessica Barnes’ body.
Tipett and Mims are charged with being a party after the fact, obstruction of justice, and failing to report a crime. Brandon Barnes is charged with murder.