COWARD — The skeletal remains of a human body were found late Thursday afternoon near Coward in Florence County, and the case is being investigated as a homicide.
Florence County sheriff’s investigators responded to the scene, 2100 N. Old Georgetown Road, the former residence of Randy Delyn Bratschi, Florence County Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Nunn said.
Bratschi, 54, disappeared in late 2004. He is presumed dead by deputies, but it is not clear whether the body found Thursday afternoon is his.
Witness Chris Springs said he and his cousin were moving a trailer from the property when they found a body underneath the trailer.
Nunn said skeletal remains were found at the scene about 5 p.m. He confirmed they were found on property where Bratschi previously lived.
The remains are being sent to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston on Friday for further analysis to help determine their identity and possible cause of death, Florence County Coroner M.G. “Bubba” Matthews said.
Randy Bratschi was last seen leaving his job at Smurfit-Stone Container in Florence the morning of Nov. 26, 2004. He failed to bring his diabetes medication with him, which cast doubt on the circumstances of his disappearance.
Investigators also became suspicious when they found later Randy Bratschi’s Isuzu Rodeo abandoned at Bluff Landing, off Old River Road in Pamplico, Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone said in a previous interview. Searches of his vehicle, as well as his Old Georgetown Road residence, yielded no clues to his whereabouts.
Several searches have taken place for the missing man, including one in February 2005, when about 100 volunteers took part in an in-depth, acre-by-acre search of two tracts of land in lower Florence County.
Meanwhile, Bratschi’s wife, 45-year-old Brenda Miles Bratschi, of 100 Lynch Road, Coward was arrested May 21 and is charged with forgery-value $5,000 or more, Florence County Detention Center booking reports show. She is accused of cashing checks belonging to someone else without permission at various locations in Florence County, Boone said in a press release.
Brenda Bratschi previously was arrested April 3, 2008, and charged with 13 counts of forgery. In that case, she was accused of taking two checkbooks from a Lake City resident sometime between February and March and using them to spend $5,200.
She had been out on bond since October 2004 when she was arrested and charged with assault and battery with intent to kill in connection with the assault of her husband. She’s accused of beating Randy Bratschi with a wooden club commonly used by truck drivers to strike the tires on 18-wheelers to check air pressure.
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