A Blenheim couple who were found dead after a murder-suicide apparently were shot to death long before the three-hour standoff with law enforcement began.
Authorities believe Bobby Henderson,46, shot his wife Debra Henderson, 46, inside their Ayers Road home Wednesday and then turned the gun on himself, Marlboro County Coroner Tim Brown said.
An autopsy showed both died of a single gunshot wound to the head. A pistol apparently was used in the shooting, he said.
Authorities arrived on the scene at about 3 p.m. after receiving a call about a man barricaded inside his house with a hostage, Marlboro County Sheriff Fred Knight said.
“We never got any response for him,” Knight said. “We never saw any movement in the house. We never heard any gunshots.”
Officers from the Bennettsville Police Department’s CERT team were called in to negotiate with Bobby Henderson but never heard anything, he said.
Agents from the State Law Enforcement Division in Columbia later arrived on the scene and took over negotiations, Knight said.
Late in the evening, SLED agents broke several windows in the home and inserted a camera suspended from a long pole into the home to see what was going on inside, he said.
“That’s when we saw them in there with no movement,” he said. “The first thing we did is send EMS in to check.”
Knight said law enforcement did not immediately enter the house after arriving on the scene because of safety and because a search warrant had not been secured.
“We just can’t rush,” he said. “We have to think about the safety of people in the house. We took every cautious step we could.”
The couple had four children between the two of them, but none were in the house at the time of shooting.
— News13 Patricia Burkett contributed to this report.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement