Area News

By DEUCE NIVEN UPDATE: Late afternoon Wednesday      Criminal charges including two counts of murder, armed robbery and weapons violations will be brought against Brandon Michael Council, initially described as a “person of interest” in Monday’s killings inside a Conway bank, 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said Wednesday.      Council, 32, of Wilson, was taken into custody…

By DEUCE NIVEN      A two-state manhunt was underway Tuesday, a day after two employees at a Conway CresCom bank branch were murdered during an armed robbery, the Conway Police Department reported.      Kathryn Davis Skeen, 36, of Green Sea and Donna DeVuyst Major, 59, of Conway, were shot and killed during the hold-up at the CresCom…

     Kingstree in Williamsburg County proved a good spot to experience today’s total eclipse of the sun, though some clouds and a distant thunderstorm gave the countdown a bit of excitement.      Totality meant darkness, street lights turning on, and some oohs and ahhs from a couple of dozen people gathered in a Williamsburg Technical College…

     Ground was broken for the Matthew 25 Center at Tabor City on Sunday, with several dozen people celebrating an ongoing effort to provide families of those incarcerated at Tabor Correctional Institution and other area jails and prisons with a safe place to stay when visiting their loved ones.      See the story, more photos…

By DEUCE NIVEN      A Longs man has been charged with murder after an exchange of gunfire outside a Finklea area nightclub killed a Tabor City man, the Horry County Police Department said Wednesday.      Dimnique Lequan Bellamy, 23, was booked into the J. Reuben Long Detention Center near Conway at 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, charged with murder…

By DEUCE NIVEN      A murder investigation is underway following the discovery of a Tabor City woman in her car in northern Horry County early Tuesday.      Latosha Nicole Lewis, 31, was found near the intersection of Carolina and Church roads in the Green Sea community south of Tabor City, Horry County Deputy Coroner Tony Hendrick said.…

By DEUCE NIVEN      Shots were fired towards a Tabor City Police Department officer responding to a late Sunday night armed robbery at the Time Saver convenience store at the state line just south of Tabor City, an Horry County Police Department report said.         Neither Officer Gary Lewis nor his patrol vehicle were hit when the…

By DEUCE NIVEN      Gunfire killed a Florida man visiting his girlfriend Saturday afternoon, Tabor City Police Chief Donald Dowless said.      Jermaine Rodrick Nelson Vickers, 30, of Brandon, Florida, was shot and killed on the front porch of his girlfriend’s School Street home at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dowless said. Dowless said the woman, who Vickers…

By DEUCE NIVEN      Local and state investigators are looking into the stabbing of a Correctional Officer at Columbus Correctional Institution (CCI) near the town of Brunswick, District Attorney Jon David said Friday.      A series of incidents at CCI including the stabbing of the Correctional Officer, an apparently unrelated violent assault on an inmate, and two…

     Columbus County Dixie Debs will be celebrated with a homecoming parade in Tabor City Monday afternoon on the heels of their World Series win in Alexandria, Louisiana Wednesday night.      Scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., the parade will begin on Hickman Road south of the downtown area, proceed through downtown, turning right on East 5th…