TV’s ‘Murder Calls’ focuses on brutal 2015 shotgun slaying of Bluffton restaurateur

A few local faces were on national television Thursday as part of a new Investigation Discovery Murder Calls episode.

Each Murder Calls focuses on a 911 call, what led up to it, and the events that followed. The “Last Call” episode, which premiered last week, featured the October 2015 slaying of Bluffton restaurateur Jonathan Cherol.

Cherol, a co-owner of Pepper’s Old Town in Bluffton, was killed on the back porch of his 39 Pinecrest Way home on Oct. 28, 2015 by a shotgun blast.

Bluffton Police Department Capt. Joseph Babkiewicz, officer Jeff Dickson, Sgt. Matthew Ferrelli, Det. Baker Odom, then-chief Joseph Manning and Kimberly Smith of the Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office were all interviewed in the show.

Babkiewicz said the people who make the show were really interested in the Cherol case and reached out to the police department. Department spokesperson Joy Nelson helped set everything up and the crew did interviews locally during filming earlier this year, he said.

Babkiewicz said his interview lasted around three hours.

Since the episode aired, Babkiewicz said he’s gotten a lot of positive feedback from area residents. Some told him they didn’t realize the work that went into the case until they saw the show.

“That case from start to finish was a team effort and it was cool to see that on television,” Babkiewicz said.

Samuel Collins was found guilty of murdering Cherol and sentenced to 50 years in prison in October 2017.

His wife, Colette Collins, was found guilty of accessory after the fact to murder and sentenced to 15 years in January 2018.

On the day of the murder, Colette Collins drove her husband to Cherol’s house, where Collins got out and fired two shotgun blasts from Cherol’s backyard shortly after midnight. The first shot struck a neighbor’s home. The second hit Cherol, according to the Solicitor’s Office at the time.

The couple left the shotgun at a friend’s house and went back home. They both went to work the next morning, according to a Solicitor’s Office release.

During Collins’ bond hearing, Deputy Solicitor Sean Thornton revealed two possible motives in the case:

▪ anger over a home robbery Samuel Collins may have believed Cherol set up.

▪ jealousy over an alleged flirtation between Colette Collins and Cherol.