(DailyVantage.com) – A suspect accused of shooting his estranged wife and her friend was found dead in a park in McCormick County, South Carolina.
Christopher Minor, who was 50 years old, was accused of shooting his ex-wife, 41-year-old Mariellen Bessent Minor, and her friend, 52-year-old Kim Melissa Thrift, after an argument that was supposedly related to their children, whom they were co-parenting.
The suspect apparently shot the two women in broad daylight, as a number of witnesses were able to record the harrowing scene on their cellphones. Police also said that some minors were also present at the time of the incident. Mariellen was found by first responders lying beside a vehicle, sporting multiple gunshot wounds, while Thrift’s dead body was found inside a vehicle.
Police later canvassed the area and confiscated the videos. Reports also did not indicate if the Minors’ children – whom Mariellen was picking up at the time of the shooting – witnessed their father shoot their mother. The shooting happened at the Arbors at Brookfield Apartments in Mauldin, where Christoper was staying.
Christopher Minor reportedly fled the scene in a Cadillac vehicle, prompting authorities to issue a BOLO (be on the lookout) alert for Minor and his vehicle. The Cadillac was later found in Baker Creek State Park in McCormick County, which is around an hour and a half away from the crime scene. Minor was found a few feet away, close to the banks of Lake Thurmond, with what police say was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Should he have lived to pay for his crimes, Minor would have been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm in the commission of a violent act.
Reports also indicate that Christopher was also abusing Mariellen, with a “brother-in-law” supposedly telling Mariellen to report the domestic abuse to the police.
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