Investigators: Kidnapped woman's slaying was random

Investigators said the slaying of a Kershaw woman who was abducted from Chesterfield County on Monday appears to have been a random act of violence.

Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker said Beverly Hope Melton, 30, of 3885 Victory Road, was kidnapped after leaving a convenience store near Jefferson in Chesterfield County on Monday afternoon.

Her body was later found in a field near the Mount Pisgah area of Kershaw County.

Nickolas Jermaine Miller, 23, of 75 Charles Miller Lane, Jefferson, is in custody at the Kershaw County Detention Center. He is charged with murder in connection with the case, but authorities said kidnapping and sexual assault are pending.

Parker said surveillance camera footage showed the suspect “harassing” Melton while she was inside Jack’s convenience store on South Main Street in Jefferson and when she was at the station’s gasoline pumps. Parker said the suspect followed her from the store to a remote location on Angelus Road in Jefferson, inside the more than 45,000-acre Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge.

It was there where the suspect passed her and pushed her vehicle off the road toward a ditch. Then, the sheriff said, the suspect kidnapped Melton and took her to a separate location in Chesterfield County where he sexually assaulted her.

After the assault, investigators said, Melton was driven to Kershaw County where she was “viciously beaten to death with a baseball bat,” Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews said.

 “To our knowledge, Ms. Melton did not know her killer,” he said in a press release. “This was a horribly brutal and senseless crime, one of the worst I have ever seen.”

Parker, who knew Melton personally, agreed.

“It was very brutal ... probably in the 37 years of my career, this was one of the worst I’ve seen,” he said. “There was just no reason for it. It was absolutely ridiculous.”

Investigators said Melton called her grandmother to tell her a man was following her and she was afraid, but contact was lost as Melton drove into an area that did not have cell phone service. That was the last time anyone heard from her. When family members went looking for Melton, they found her vehicle, with the motor still running and in reverse, and her purse still inside.

Once family members reported Melton missing, deputies returned to the convenience store where she last made a purchase on a card and identified the suspect and his vehicle by viewing surveillance footage. A Be On the Lookout (BOLO) alert was issued and a Chesterfield County deputy soon spotted the suspect’s vehicle near Jefferson with him inside. No arrest was made at that time, investigators said, but the suspect agreed to follow the deputy to Jefferson Town Hall for questioning.

Investigators said the suspect eventually confessed to deputies, and to Parker, and agreed to show investigators where Melton was. With assistance from a State Law Enforcement Division helicopter equipped with infrared radar, they found her body in a field behind two abandoned turkey barns.

Investigators later determined the slaying took place off Sandy Grove Road in Kershaw County south of Jefferson, about 10 miles from Angelus Road.

Matthews said deputies found a “significant amount of evidence” at the scene.

Her family members declined to comment Tuesday.

Melton worked for the past 12 years at the T&T Country Store in McBee, her friends said, and was one of its most beloved employees.

Rodney Tolbert, whose family owns the store, said Melton was not only a close friend, but someone who he considered family.

“Hope, more or less, she was like part of the family here with my daddy, my mother and me,” he said. “She was just a good-hearted person and just to hear what somebody would do to a person like her, it’s just ... it’s beyond words.”

Tolbert’s sentiments were echoed by law enforcement officers, including Parker, who said there was no reason for someone as kind as Melton to face such a cruel fate.

Tolbert said people across the community are finding it hard to come to terms with it.

“Hope was a kind person. She would give a shirt off of her back to anybody and she was just a good-natured person, always smiling ... she’s just a one-in-a-million type of girl,” he said.

While the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office has taken the lead in the investigation, Matthews was quick to credit his Chesterfield County counterparts for doing most of the work.

“I must give credit where it is due. Chesterfield authorities jumped on this case with a vengeance. They are the ones who solved this crime,” he said.

Parker noted the speed with which all agencies worked together and said solving the case so quickly would not have been possible were it not for the community and area law enforcement agents’ assistance.

Parker said he encourages women to take steps to protect themselves from similar types of situations.

“Get a CWP (concealed weapons permit)  … there’s just no reason to unlock doors, no reason to give anyone the opportunity to hurt you,” he said. “You’ve got to defend yourself. I’ve been in this business a long time and I’d advise any female, when in doubt, call 911, just please call.

“In this location, the phone service was absolutely worthless ... but if you’re in a vehicle, you’ve got about 3,200 pounds or 3,800 pounds ... don’t give up. If you have to basically defend yourself and use the vehicle as a weapon, do that.”

Chesterfield County investigators said they had no knowledge of Miller having any criminal record and said his juvenile records are sealed.

Miller is expected to face charges in Chesterfield County in addition those he already faces in Kershaw County. His bond on the murder charge must be set by a circuit court judge.