Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Columbia, SC: Man arrested for stabbing USC associate professor to death

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Police have arrested a man they believe murdered a University of South Carolina associate professor inside her home over the weekend.

Columbia police said Jennifer Lee Wilson, 36, was stabbed multiple times at her home on Monroe Street sometime between late Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

Police were first called to the 3700 block of Monroe St. Saturday afternoon to investigate an argument. When officers arrived, they did not hear or see anything out of the ordinary, so they left.

On Sunday morning, police went back to the home around 11:00 a.m. after receiving another call from a concerned neighbor.

This time, police discovered Wilson's body and signs of a struggle. Investigators say Wilson was stabbed multiple times.

Police arrested Hank Hawes, 37, at the hospital on Sunday and charged him with murdering Wilson. Police said Hawes and Wilson were once a couple, but the relationship had ended and they did not live together.

"You don't expect that type of stuff to go one in your neighborhood," said one neighbor on Sunday. "It's scary"

Police said Wilson an associate professor of education at the University of South Carolina. According to her curriculum vitae, she had been employed there since 2005, and had just become tenured after only five years at USC

"Wilson was admired by colleagues and students for the difference that she made in the lives of children and teachers around the world," said College of Education Dead Lemuel Watson. "Although her life was cut short tragically, her contributions to literacy and teaching will live on in the achievements of the many students whose lives she touched."

"I've lost not only a great colleague, but a good person," commented Dr. Gloria Boutte, who said Wilson was full of life and loved her job.

"Her life's work was to try to figure out how to help people who want to be teachers to do so in a way that keeps them in the profession and a make a difference," added Dr. Ed Dickey.

Hawes is being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. The incident remains under investigation.

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