By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com UPDATE/April 19      A Clarkton man has been identified as the Columbus County Detention Center inmate who apparently killed himself in custody last week, Columbus County Sheriff Lewis Hatcher said Monday.      Andrew James Ellis, 37, of Mercer Mill Road, Clarkton was arrested on April 16, three days before detention staff found him…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      An unidentified body has been located near Fair Bluff, Columbus County Sheriff Lewis Hatcher said Saturday.      The body was located in the 4000 block of Hinson Crossroads behind a tobacco barn on Friday, the sheriff said in a news release.      Identity and cause of death are pending autopsy,” the news release…

  By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Two residential break-ins have been cleared with two arrests and much of the stolen merchandise recovered, Columbus County Sheriff Lewis Hatcher said Friday.      Additional property believed stolen from Walmart in Whiteville was also recovered as part of the same investigation, Hatcher said in a news release.      Angel Elizabeth Strickland,…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      An early April shooting that resulted in the death of a Fair Bluff man a day later has resulted in an arrest, a warrant served by the State Bureau of Investigation shows.      Rykeem Obrian Tyler, 25, of EA Barnes Lane, Fair Bluff, was charged Tuesday, Columbus County Detention Center records show,…

     A significant water leak in the Courthouse Square area of Whiteville has forced the closing of the Columbus County Courthouse at noon today, with several Columbus County government offices in the area shutting down at 1 p.m.      Repairing the leak will take the remainder of the day, city officials estimated.      Columbus County…