Posted on 12/27/2011 9:44:38 AM PST by marktwain
A Lancaster County woman was beaten to death in Kershaw County with a baseball bat after being kidnapped and assaulted, authorities said.
A suspect is in custody and the attack appears random, Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews said.
“This was a horribly brutal and senseless crime,” he said. “One of the worst I have ever seen.”
According to Matthews:
Beverly Hope Melton, 30, of the Town of Kershaw, was in a convenience store around noon Monday and reportedly was harassed by a man later identified as Nickolas Jermaine Miller, 23.
Around 1:15 p.m., Melton’s grandmother contacted Chesterfield County sheriff’s deputies to report that Melton had called her to tell her she was frightened by a man who was following her. It was her last contact. Soon after, Chesterfield deputies found Melton’s still-running car in reverse, stuck in a ditch on Angelus Road near Jefferson.
Officers then returned to the convenience store and retrieved video footage showing Melton and a man someone recognized as Miller, of Jefferson. Miller’s vehicle also could be identified, so an alert was put out for law enforcement to be on the lookout for it.
A Chestefield County deputy stopped Miller and Miller voluntarily followed him to the Jefferson Town Hall. It was not known at that time that a crime had occurred, Matthews said.
Hower, when questioned by Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker, Miller reportedly said he had abducted Melton, assaulted her and then killed her.
Miller led Parker, a deputy and South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division officers to a secluded area off Sandy Grove Road in the Mount Pisgah area of Kershaw County, Matthews said.
It was dark by then, but around 6 p.m. a SLED helicopter equipped with infrared sensors spotted Melton’s body about 20 yards from the small search party, behind two abandoned turkey barns.
Kershaw County is leading the homicide investigation, but Matthews credited Chesterfield officers for doing most of the work already.
An autopsy on Melton’s body will be performed in Newberry County. Miller is being held at the Kershaw County Detention Center on charges of murder and possibly criminal sexual conduct.
He also faces charges of kidnapping and possibly criminal sexual conduct in Chestefield County. Because of the seriousness of the charges, Miller’s bond hearing will be presided over by a circuit court judge rather than a magistrate. That has not been scheduled.
Miller has no criminal record known to South Carolina law enforcement. He also has no known connection to Melton.
“It appears to be random, which is what makes it so scary,” Matthews said. “If this woman had had a concealed weapons permit and a firearm, this would not have happened. That’s why I advocate for people getting them.”
Matthews said Miller was calm this morning and had not asked for an attorney.
Melton was married, but Matthews did not know if she had children.
Sorry. It's easy to second guess when you have experience with just such a situation. And these days...a normal life includes preparing for emrgencies.
I used to go with a young lady who had occasional problems being followed while in her car. She was very attractive and on several occasions would garner undue attention from guys in cars who thought they'd "have some fun".
After the first incident, she made damned sure she knew where the police stations were in surrounding towns and made use of that knowledge by wasting no time getting there...at high speed if necessary. Situational awareness. Preparedness. They work.
“After the first incident, she made damned sure she knew where the police stations were....”
The young lady you speak of had a “first incident”. That meant she was able to truly think about the experience, possibly talk to other people for advice and then make a future plan if it occurred again. Nothing in this article stated this poor woman had previous situations with this man before. In fact, the article seemed to point that it was random. G*d forbid some psychopath was truly following your friend with the intent of killing her on the first incident. She may have been a victim just as easy. IMHO.
I was in the grocery store the other day and a black guy whacked into me in passing. I was shocked and turned around expecting him to say “excuse me” but he just stood there with his back to me.
Some black people just simply loathe anyone white. My parents helped fight the battle for civil rights, but he didn’t bother to ask me that.
Another time I was at a city bureau for something and was behind a black man and his little son who was staring at me. I said “hi” and smiled at the little boy who said nothing back to me. His father turned around, looked at the child, looked at me and said “He has to put up with Caucasians at school.”
I was dumfounded.
TNB
They have preached this for years and establishes the psychological climate for black on white crime. It is the psychology of “they owe me.” This art is practiced in its worst form by President Obama, Jessi Jackson, Al Sharpton etc.
The media will give these racist vast coverage. However, the media will not even acknowledge great black leaders such as Thomas Sowell etc. In effect the media has become the megaphone for black racism and jealously.
President Obama has probably set race relations back by 30 years. Unless he can totally polarize the minorities and induce racial divide, he knows he will not be reelected.
A teachable moment right now. Okay, the god sheriff encourages you to arms, and hw many of you are sitting here right now, in your home, at the office etc unarmed?
Come on now folks, bad things happen to people who aren’t prepared for such “abbe rations”. Let me remind you here and now; these ain’t abbe rations, these things happen all the time, to everyone of whatever color, by anyone of whatever color.
It ain’t paranoia IF indeed someone is out to get you, history proves that this is true.
Why wait, get your CCW permit (if req’d), a fighting handgun, some books and most of all, professional training to better be prepared for when death comes knocking, then carry it at every opportunity. (Note, I am home today, laying tile for the Mrs. A Christmas gift, and yet, while waiting for a batch of thin set to hydrate, I am fully prepared- yes, my Glock may have mortar on it. It will still go bang. House alarm on immediate, doors secured, video recording, I call it my insurance policy.)
Who you gonna call? When? Bet it won’t help much.
“GOOD” Sheriff, “aberrations”-silly spell check going nuts...
That’s not concealed — that’s “in your face” armed.
Effective at deterrence
We had better realize that we can forget about MLK’s dream — it will NEVER happen in this country.
They will always remain lofty, meaningless words especially when we have an administration that promotes racial division.
Beaten to death with a baseball bat. Anyone that has seen the last 10 minutes of the movie Casino knows how horribly brutal that is. Poor woman. God bless her soul.
Thanks for being the voice of compassion and sanity in this thread. All too often, the reports of these incidents bring out people who like to imagine that if the victim had a gun, they would have been just fine. It’s really a fantasy that is based on the very real hope that we can all control what happens to us, if we are only prepared enough - or that we get what we deserve.
After all the catastrophes that our country has suffered this year, perhaps we can use this New Year’s holiday to think about how many people *didn’t* deserve the tragedies that occurred to them.
“Around 1:15 p.m., Melton’s grandmother contacted Chesterfield County sheriff’s deputies to report that Melton had called her to tell her she was frightened by a man who was following her.
This kind of scenario is always good to pose to leftists:
If YOU where in that kind of situation, would YOU want to be able to defend yourself OR would you want to wait a Lifetime for the police to arrive?
Gives them a whole new perspective on the issue of “Gun Control”.
I was just thinking that, except it would be his grandmom ( mom is meth-head) saying, “He a goo’ boy. He turning ‘es life aroun’. “
( Signing up for community college, next week, you see.)
Don't forget to include "he was getting his act together and he was an aspiring rapper."
I have no idea how “nice” he was, but he’s obviously been oppressed. Holder better send some of his people down here to make sure we redneck South Carolinians don’t persecute this fine specimen of manhood.
“Whenever I see the words “senseless” and “random” in the story, I know pretty much what to expect.”
Conspiracy to deny and conceal hate crimes; 10 year minimum prison, without parole, and $500,000 minimum fine. Forfeiture of all pay, benefits and pensions.
If only...
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