Authorities are offering little new information about two cases in Jasper County involving a total of four people shot to death.

Earlier this month, a man and a woman were found with gunshot wounds near the scene of a car crash in Hardeeville. In April, two men were found dead in a pickup in Ridgeland .

IN HARDEEVILLE

The bodies of Desmond Brown, 25, of Hardeeville and Octavia Scott, 26, of Bluffton were found May 11 near a car that crashed into a tree on Purrysburg Road.

Both had been shot in the head and their bodies were found outside the car, Hardeeville Police Chief Richard Nagy said.

An autopsy done by the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston determined the gunshot wounds caused their deaths. Blood and other evidence have led investigators to believe something happened before the crash, Nagy said.

The car belonged to a Hilton Head Island resident who had loaned it to them.

Nagy said Wednesday he's not ready to release more information, but the investigation is progressing.

"We've developed new leads," he said. "Every day we're acquiring more, and we've been getting a lot of cooperation from the community."

Nagy said the case is one of his department's top priorities.

IN RIDGELAND

Authorities say there are few leads in an investigation into the shooting deaths of two Georgia men in Ridgeland.

Garett Settles, 22, of Jesup, Ga., and Watson Kyle Allen, 23, of Bloomingdale, Ga., were found shot to death April 13 by a passerby at Tuten Boat Landing.The bodies were in a pickup and had multiple gunshot wounds.

The Jasper County Sheriff's Office and the State Law Enforcement Division are working together on the case. Sheriff Gregory Jenkins said Friday the investigation is still "wide open."

"There aren't necessarily a lot of leads," he said, adding that authorities are "dealing with the fundamentals of evidence in the case and moving forward step by step."

Jenkins said he is trying to reassure the community that the killings "are not random."

Follow reporter Anne Christnovich at twitter.com/IPBG_CrimeNOB.

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