Investigators believe murder victims recovered in Yemassee, Burton were killed in same location
Investigators believe a man found burned in a car in Yemassee last month and a woman found buried in a shallow grave in Burton this week were both killed on the property of the three people charged in their deaths, a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office spokesman said Friday.
Charles Brown, 28, has an active warrant for murder in the death of Katherine Collier, who was found Wednesday buried in a shallow grave on Brown's property at 18 Toro Lane in Burton, Sheriff's Office spokesman Capt. Bob Bromage said.
Investigators believe both Collier and Titus Singleton, 28, -- who was found burned inside a car Dec. 18 off of U.S. 17 in Yemassee -- were killed at the 18 Toro Lane property within the same timeframe within several days of Christmas, Bromage said.
Brown's brother Olin Brown, 29, has been charged with murder and their mother Nancy Kennedy, 56, has been charged with accessory to murder in connection with Singleton's death, according to the S.C. Law Enforcement Division.
Kennedy and Olin Brown have also been charged as accessories to murder in connection with Collier's death, Bromage said.
Collier, of Yemassee, was reported missing by her sister-in-law just hours before a forensic autopsy performed at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston gave investigators a positive identification. The sister-in-law reported Collier missing to Yemassee police after seeing the location on the news and recognizing it as where Collier and the Browns lived.
By then, investigators were nearly certain the body was the 25-year-old Collier, Charles Brown's girlfriend, Bromage said.
A Sheriff's Office news release said the autopsy showed the woman, described as Charles Brown's girlfriend, died from two gunshot wounds.
Collier had last been seen or heard from around Christmas, according to a Sheriff's Office news release.
The motive for Collier's death is still under investigation and additional criminal charges may be forthcoming, Bromage said.
The Browns and their mother were first identified through a North Carolina investigation into the sale of drugs and firearms. Detectives from the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office and the Wilmington office of the ATF began an investigation Dec. 31 after receiving information about the sale of drugs and firearms at a home on High Hill Road in Shallotte, a town about 35 miles north of Myrtle Beach, according to a news release from the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office.
That investigation led them to stop separate vehicles in Calabash near the South Carolina border on Jan. 5. In the cars were Charles Brown and Kennedy.
Kennedy and Brown were found in possession of firearms, leading detectives to execute a search warrant at the High Hill Drive home, according to the news release.
Four firearms were seized, and Charles Brown was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. A felony conviction for burglary in 2004 was listed on Brown's arrest warrant in Brunswick County.
He was taken to the Brunswick County Detention Facility and is being held in lieu of a $2 million bond, but the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office expects him to be extradited to Beaufort soon on the active murder warrant, Bromage said.
Investigators in North Carolina initially contacted SLED, who were handling the investigation into Singleton's death, Bromage said.
No information about Singleton's connection to the Browns or the motive for his death has been released.
SLED spokesman Thom Berry said Friday the investigation into Singleton's death is still ongoing.
The joint investigation between both sheriff's offices led to the discovery of Collier's body Wednesday.
Interviews with the suspects revealed that a partially buried body part recovered off Schein Loop in Burton came from Singleton. The Sheriff's Office did not specify what the body part was, which has been taken to MUSC for examination by forensic pathologists.
Follow reporter Matt McNab at twitter.com/IPBG_Matt.
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This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Investigators believe murder victims recovered in Yemassee, Burton were killed in same location."