Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Mount Pleasant, SC: Woman missing, fiance found dead in home

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Authorities in South Carolina said they were investigating the disappearance of a woman whose fiance was found dead in the couple's home near Charleston.

Dara Lee Watson, 30, was last seen in Boone, N.C., where her parents live, last Monday, her mother told police, and Watson's burned sport utility vehicle was found abandoned Wednesday in Francis Marion Forest north of Charleston, Fox News reported.

Police responding to a report of a possible suicide said they found Watson's fiance, David Hedrick, 34, dead near a 9 mm handgun at the couple's Mount Pleasant home Friday, The (Charleston) Post and Courier reported.

Hedrick, who was president and chief executive officer of a bail bond company, Palmetto Surety on Daniel Island, told police when contacted by phone Friday that he had had a fight with Watson Monday night and that she had left Tuesday, The Post and Courier said. He told police he had not heard from her since.

Watson's cellphone was last used about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and her boss reported receiving a text message that day "stating she was fine," police said.

Authorities suspended the search Sunday for Watson, an accountant, in the wooded area around where her burned 2006 GMC Envoy was found.

Her disappearance is being treated as a missing-persons case, Mount Pleasant police Capt. Stan Gragg told Fox News.

But he said, "We have not ruled out foul play." He did not elaborate.

Watson was reported missing early Friday by her boss when she did not show up for work at Verge Solutions in Mount Pleasant.

The couple's online registry said they were to be married in the South Pacific in 273 days, WCBD-TV, Charleston, reported.

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