Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Simpsonville, SC: UPDATE: Boyfriend Charged in Simpsonville Homicides

Simpsonville Police have charged 35-year-old Michael James Crane with the murder of 26-year-old Allison Nicole Cross and her mother, 56-year-old Jane Lanser.

Crane was the boyfriend of Cross.

According to family of the deceased, Lanser started a new job on Monday and when she did not report to work on Tuesday, authorities received permission to enter her residence at 109 Eastview Drive just after 3 p.m.

The bodies of Lanser and Cross were discovered in the home shortly after entry. Crane was found in the home as well.

Autopsies confirmed that both victims died as a result of multiple blunt force trauma to the head.

Family of the deceased said that Cross had sent Lanser text messages and emails indicating she had been threatened by Crane and feared for her safety. Cross is also a mother to three children and had recently ended a relationship with the children’s father.

Crane currently is being held without bond at the Greenville County Detention Center.

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Two bodies found this afternoon at a Simpsonville home were victims of a double-homicide, police said this evening.

The Simpsonville Police Department was called out the scene at 109 Eastview Drive shortly after 3 p.m. for a welfare check. Officers made a forced entry into the home and found the bodies of two dead females.

The victims have not been named. The Greenville County Coroner's Office will perform autopsies in the morning.

Simpsonville Police Chief Charles Reese said a person of interest is being questioned, but declined to release any further information at this time.

Reese said this is the first homicide case the department has worked this year.

Neighbors said three adults live at the home: a woman, her daughter and the daughter's boyfriend.

A male was taken to hospital, neighbors said.

Neighbors said Poinsettia is a quiet residential neighborhood, where hardly anything happens.

Curious about the police presence, neighbors gathered in driveways or on porches to talk, while others drove slowly down the street lined with law enforcement vehicles and media trucks stopping briefly to take a look at the scene.

Debbie Chitwood, who lives across the street from the brown brick ranch home, sat and talked with her neighbor Elizabeth Cannady, while investigators with the coroner's office and the police department worked.

"We've never seen anything like this," Chitwood said. "It's a good, quiet neighborhood and we don't really know what has happened at this point."

Chitwood said that she had not seen the oldest member of the household in several days. She said while the woman's car hasn't been moved today, in previous days she had seen the woman's daughter and her boyfriend come and go from the home.

Elizabeth Cannady said that she's known the oldest resident most of her life. She said they grew up together and that the victim had attended Clear Springs Church.

Lynn Hudson, who lives nearby, stood on the side of the road talking with neighbors. She's lived in the neighborhood since she was two years old, but doesn't recall anything like this.

"We've had isolated incidents to happen around here," Hudson said, "but no real person on person incidents."

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