Lt. Randy Doran, an investigator with the Edgefield County sheriffís office, points to where a Richmond County teen ager ís body was found in 2001 after he was beaten to death. Ron Cockerille/Staff

Victims' bodies often brought across border

COLLIERS, S.C. - As long as there are abductions and homicides in Richmond County, bodies will be turning up in neighboring South Carolina, 11th Circuit Solicitor Donnie Myers acknowledged Monday.

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"I wish we could put up a big sign at the state line that says, 'Don't bring your bodies into South Carolina,'" said Mr. Myers, the prosecutor for Edgefield, McCormick, Saluda and Lexington counties. "We've had our share of them. Too many."

The discovery Sunday of a shallow grave in Edgefield County containing the body of 29-year-old Tamara Dunstan, of Augusta, is just the latest chapter in what could fill a book of interstate homicide cases in recent years.

Since 1991, at least six homicide cases in Edgefield and McCormick Counties started in Georgia, authorities said. That includes the case of a 16-year-old who was beaten to death after being carried across state lines against his will by a drug gang from Georgia and a teenage girl who was killed with a pipe bomb in McCormick County after she was driven from Martinez.

In Aiken County, the body of Augusta Sam's Club manager David Holt was discovered in the trunk of his burned car, parked just across the Fifth Street Bridge in North Augusta. He had been taken from the parking lot of the store on Bobby Jones Expressway.

Edgefield County Sheriff's Lt. Randy Doran says South Carolina has an abundance of open land in which to hide bodies.

"We've got all this U.S. Forestry land, and a lot of places, it's nothing but wooded areas - there's not that many houses around," Lt. Doran said. "It's easy to get in these woods and nobody see you drop a body off and be gone."

In most cases, the killer or killers had some familiarity with the rural area where they hid the body. Investigators suspect Robert Francis Burke, charged in Mrs. Dunstan's slaying, might have done some hunting in the area where her body was found.

"He didn't just come up on this place," Lt. Doran said. "He had to do some riding."

Interstate cases cause some legal tie-ups in terms of jurisdiction for particular crimes and transfer of prisoners from one state to face charges in another, but Mr. Myers praises his counterparts across the Savannah River.

"It requires us to work closely together, and thank goodness they are easy to work with," he said.

Reach Stephen Gurr at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or stephen.gurr@augustachronicle.com.

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Previous Stories

• Burke asks for attorney at Tamara Dunstan slaying hearing
• Woman's body is found
• Service becomes 'rally of tears'
• Heavily-wooded area yields shallow grave
• Who is Ronald Francis Burke?
• Family hopes public can help
• Woman is selfless, friends say
• Family, friends gather for vigil
• Family of missing woman releases statement
• Family members call on abductors to safely return missing 29-year-old
• Police search for pregnant Augusta woman

--From the Tuesday, April 20, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle