Almost 40 years after a Burton woman was shot and killed, a man has been charged
Nearly 40 years after a Burton woman was murdered while washing clothes in her apartment complex, the cold case has been solved, authorities say.
On Wednesday, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner confirmed during a press conference that Cortez Sabino Lake, 76, had been charged with murder in the death of Margit Schuller, a 34-year-old mother.
Lake was charged with murder and booked into the county jail at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday . He is being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center. His bond will be set in Beaufort County Circuit Court.
The cold case dates back to Nov. 1, 1987, when, around 8:30 p.m., Schuller was shot in the head with a .22 caliber pistol in the laundromat at Palmetto Apartments on Harding Street in Burton.
She then crawled out of the laundromat and 12-year-old daughter found her body outside the laundromat, underneath a tree.
Investigators believe sexual assault was the motive in this case. Lake’s criminal history was minimal and he was “not on the radar” for investigators.
Lake, an Illinois native, lived in the same apartment complex as Schuller at the time of her death, according to the sheriff’s office. His apartment was located between 600 and 800 feet from Schuller’s apartment. He was stationed at Parris Island where he worked at a dental clinic. He was discharged in 1988.
Lake later worked at Beaufort Memorial Hospital as a respiratory therapist and has since retired. More recently, public records show the suspect lived in the Shell Point Park area, right off Parris Island Gateway.
The investigation
On the night of Schuller’s murder, investigators found a 200-yard trail of blood from the laundromat to the far end of the apartment units. This trail split from Schuller’s path, leading investigators to believe the suspect had been injured and blood was collected at the scene.
Even though the department identified several persons of interest in the years following the killing, limitations in forensic science prevented investigators from making any definitive link to a suspect.
When asked if Lake was interviewed early in the investigation because of his proximity to the crime scene, investigators said he was likely “absent” when the original detectives canvassed the apartment complex.
In 1989, two years, the murder weapon was found just a few miles from the crime scene. Workers clearing a construction site for a hotel on Highway 21 near Robert Smalls Parkway unearthed a French-made pistol. There was no record on the gun, since it had been sold.
Ballistics testing at the time confirmed the weapon was used to kill Schuller, but there was not enough evidence to name a suspect.
DNA breakthroughs
In 2005, as forensic DNA technology was starting to advance, a DNA profile was created from the blood samples collected from the scene. All original persons of interest were eliminated based on DNA comparisons.
In 2019, local detectives used a new approach in hopes of catching the killer. Using a DNA sample collected from the scene, they generated 3-D composite sketches of what the suspect might have looked like at the time of the murder and what they might look like in the present day.
It was the first time any police department in the Lowcountry had tried using this technology to solve a murder, according to previous reporting.
The illustration was crafted by Parabon NanoLabs technology called Snapshot by using “reverse engineering” from a person’s DNA to predict their features. The technology has helped law enforcement agencies identify more than 365 persons of interest since it was launched in 2018, according to the company’s website.
A cold case committee volunteer on Hilton Head was who concluded the offender was likely Lake. This was the same volunteer who helped in identifying Maria Telles-Gonzalez, who had been known as the Beaufort County “Jane Doe” for 27 years after she was murdered in 1995 in Yemassee.
This spring, Bob Bromage and Lt. Adam Draisen, the investigators on the case, started to question Lake, who did not cooperate. Investigators were able to obtain DNA from the suspect, even without his cooperation, Bromage said, and it was a match.
Bromage started his career as a deputy investigator at the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office in November 1990 and has remained on as head of cold case investigations since leaving the agency in July to work as the Director of Public Safety for the Town of Hilton Head.
Investigators obtained a search warrant to compel Lake to provide DNA, and about a week later, they learned it was a match.
Schuller’s life
Schuller was born in 1953 in Gardony, Hungary. She worked as a cardiac nurse in Hungary before marrying her husband, Jozsef Schuller, in a town about 40 miles west of Budapest. The couple had their daughter before immigrating to the United States in 1982.
After a brief stay in Alabama, the family moved to Beaufort where Jozsef joined the United States Navy. He was stationed at Parris Island. At the time of his wife’s death, he had been deployed to San Diego for training.
Law enforcement spoke with Jozsef after the suspect was charged. He continues to struggle with the loss of his wife, he told law enforcement, and thinks about how their daughter was lost without her mother, and how the grandchildren never had the chance to know her.
Law enforcement continues to seek out additional information that the public might have about the crime and the suspect, Lake. Those with information can call Bromage at 843-816-8013 or submit anonymous tips through Beaufort County Crime Stoppers online or by phone.
“Often times, this is not a one and done,” Bromage said. “There were other people that lived in the apartment complex back in 1987. I’d love to talk to them.”
More than 30 cold cases remain from crimes that took place in Beaufort County since 1972, Bromage said.
This story was originally published November 19, 2025 at 2:04 PM.
