A look at Beaufort County's 2015 homicide victims
2015 was the bloodiest in 20 years in Beaufort County in terms of homicides. Sixteen people were killed, many of them by guns. Here is a look at those who died and the status of the investigations.
William Kareem Major
The 18-year-old Beaufort resident was shot to death Jan. 7 on Kinloch Road in Dale.
Geoni Najee Clark, 17 of Dale, was charged with his murder Jan. 9 in connection to the case.
He is being held in the Beaufort County Detention Center with a $100,000 bond.
Sheriff P.J. Tanner later said Major's death was likely the result of a soured gun sale or trade.
Nicholas Degros
The 30-year-old father of five was killed by gunfire outside his fiancee's Beaufort home Jan. 9.
Anthony Clyde Ellison, 38 and Jasmine Nicole Femia, 21, were arrested and charged with murder and criminal conspiracy in connection with his death.
Both Ellison and Femia are being held in the detention center as they await court proceedings. Ellison's bond is $225,000 and Femia's is $75,000.
Detuan Jenkins
The first of three to die on Beaufort's Greene Street, the 19-year-old St. Helena Island man was shot outside a Beaufort gym on Beaufort's Greene Street on Feb. 16.
Thomas James Caron, 18, also of Lady's Island, was charged with murder in Jenkins' death.
Caron is being held at the detention center on a $50,000 bond.
Antonio Brewer
Brewer was shot to death in Port Royal around 5:30 a.m. March 20 as he sat in the driver's seat of his car in a parking lot on Grober Hill Road, according to the Sheriff's Office.
His 2-year-old daughter and the girl's mother were also in the car and were wounded. No arrest has been made in connection with the case as the Sheriff's Office investigates with the Port Royal Police Department.
Matthew Horne
The 20-year-old Beaufort man was found dead by police around 9:30 p.m. April 30 at a city basketball court on Greene Street. Officers were called to the area after a report of shots fired. Malik Shakur Stanfield, 17, was charged with Horne's murder the following month.
He is being held at the detention center on a $150,000 bond.
Herman Gaston Jr.
On May 5, Gaston, 34, was shot and killed while driving in his University Park community in Okatie.
The case remains unsolved.
Joseph Cochran
The day after Gaston was killed, 40-year-old Cochran, a Marine Corps veteran and father of four, was shot and killed by one of his two step-sons, Bryan Malonis, at his Burton home, police say. Malonis was found not guilty by reason of insanity in Beaufort County Court Wednesday.
Dominique Williams
The 17-year-old was shot to death, allegedly by a 15-year-old gunman, at Coligny Beach Park on Hilton Head Island on July 19.
An investigative report released by the Sheriff's Office said that some of Williams' friends had tried to reach him by phone to warn him the 15-year-old had a gun and planned to settle their argument with it.
The suspect is in custody at a juvenile facility in Columbia where he awaits news of whether he will be tried as an adult.
Rhashard Spikes
The 21-year-old was shot to death Aug. 4 on Hilton Head Island as he drove in the area of U.S. 278 and Southwood Park near the Oaks Apartments. His two passengers were not injured.
According to the Sheriff's Office, a small silver-colored vehicle with tinted windows traveling in the opposite direction veered into Spikes' lane. He avoided a collision and yelled out the window at the other driver.
That driver made a U-turn, sped up to catch Spikes and at least two shots were fired. Spikes drove to a nearby gas station and was flown to Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, where he died.
The Sheriff's Office has not identified any suspects for the murder in the apparent road rage incident.
Jovan Donaldson
The 23-year-old died Aug. 5 in Burton after one of his family members called him in distress.
The woman had gotten into an argument with a man she lived with on Polite Drive. Three family members, one of them Donaldson, arrived to confront the man.
During that confrontation, one of the three males fired a handgun, striking Donaldson.
Members of the group drove Donaldson to the fire station on Burton Hill Road, where he was pronounced dead.
Deputies later arrested 22-year-old Devandre James and charged him with murder after he turned himself in.
Charles Miller
Miller, 30, of Hilton Head, was shot outside a Snider Walk residence Oct. 22 around 11 a.m.
Brian Allen Jr., 22, was later arrested and charged with murder at the Magnolia Motel in Hardeeville and was in possession of a handgun investigators believe to be the same caliber used to kill Miller, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Investigators believe armed robbery may have been the motive for Miller's death, the Sheriff's Office said.
Allen is being held at the detention center as he awaits court proceedings.
Johnathan Cherol
Cherol, 33, was killed by a shotgun blast to the head Oct. 28 on the back porch of his 39 Pinecrest Way home in Bluffton.
Married couple Sam and Colette Collins, also of Bluffton, were charged with his murder Dec. 3 and are expected in General Sessions court between Jan. 19 and 22 for bond hearings, according to 14th Circuit Deputy Solicitor Sean Thornton.
Steven Brown
Brown, 40, was shot and killed Oct. 31 outside of the Elks Lodge on Church Street in Beaufort.
Two others were wounded in the incident just after midnight, according to the Beaufort Police Department.
The case remains unsolved.
Titus Singleton
Singleton's body was found burned inside a car off U.S. Highway 17 in Yemassee Dec. 18. Hunters in the area found the vehicle around 9:30 a.m. The cause of his death has not been determined. The Sheriff's Office believes Singleton may have been killed at a residence in Burton on Toro Lane and then moved to Yemassee. Burton resident Nancy Kennedy, 56, and her two sons, Charles Brown, 38 and Olin Brown, 29, were arrested in connection with Singleton's death. During that investigation, the body of a woman was found buried in a shallow grave at the Burton address.
Unidentified
The body of a woman was found buried at 18 Toro Lane Wednesday in Burton, home to Nancy Kennedy and the Brown family. Her identity and time of death remain unknown as the Sheriff's Office continues it's investigation. She is believed to have been killed in 2015, according to Capt. Bob Bromage.
Henry Jerome Frazier
Frazier, 38, was the most-recent homicide victim on Greene Street in Beaufort.
As the street's third victim in 2015, he was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound around 9:15 p.m. Christmas Eve, according to the Beaufort Police Department. The case remains unsolved.
Ver'mon Steve
Steve, 36, of Beaufort, disappeared from his residence Oct. 25. Skeletal remains found on Pea Patch Lane on St. Helena Island were later identified as Steve's.
Two men -- Varsheen Antuan Smith, 39, of Beaufort, and Tyrone Anthony Wallace, 21, of St. Helena were initially charged with kidnapping in the case. Smith now faces a murder charge. Both are being held in the Beaufort County Detention Center.*
*The day this story was published, Jan. 7, the remains of Ver'mon Steve, of Beaufort, were identified after they were located on Pea Patch Lane on St. Helena Island in October, making the new number of homicides 17.
This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 4:17 PM with the headline "A look at Beaufort County's 2015 homicide victims."