Sources: Convicted Alice Donovan killer sent map to Conway Police in late 2006

A source within the Horry County Police Department told News13 that sometime in late 2006 and early 2007, Chadrick Fulks sent the Conway Police Department a map of the area he said he and Brandon Basham dumped Alice Donovan’s body in 2002.

Basham and Fulks were convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing the 44-year-old Galivants Ferry woman from the parking lot of the Conway Wal-Mart on Nov. 14, 2002.

Investigators thought the pair dumped Donovan’s body in northern Horry County or somewhere in Brunswick County, N.C., but were never able to find Donovan.

The News13 source said Conway Police and Horry County Police both sent sergeants over investigations out to the Wampee area to follow up on Fulks’ claims.

The Conway Police Department sent Sgt. Sean Addison, who is now doing contract work in Iraq, and the Horry County Police Department sent former Sgt. Tom DelPercio to search the area, according to the Horry County Police Department source.

Several members of law enforcement felt Fulks was trying to bluff investigators with the map, according to the source who also participated in searches for Donovan following her disappearance.

News13 contacted Conway Police Department Public Information Officer Catina Hipp on Wednesday to confirm the facts, and Hipp told News13 she would have to research the information.

Hipp said the case file was stored away following the convictions and locating it would take time, but Hipp gave no indication of when the information would be available.

Before Fulks’ 2004 trial, FBI agents took the convicted killer out to the area in hopes he would lead investigators to Donovan’s body, but after a full day of searches on foot, FBI agent Jeff Bruning said investigators didn’t find anything and returned Fulks to jail.

A missing person search group out of Wilmington, N.C., received a letter and a map from Fulks on Jan. 18, detailing the area he said searchers would find Donovan’s remains.

On Jan. 18, the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons search found a human skull in the area Fulks’ drawing said the pair dumped the body.

On Jan. 24, search crews found a human arm bone in the same area.

The search group returned to Watertower Road on Jan. 27, and after nearly six hours of searching, FBI agent Bruning dug up another human arm bone, according to the group’s founder Monica Caison.

Horry County Police’s Crime Scene Unit took the findings to the state crime lab for DNA comparison in Columbia.

A Horry County Police Department’s crime scene tech took oral DNA swabs from Donovan’s two daughters at the search scene on Watertower Road on Tuesday.

Investigators will use DNA comparisons from the remains and from the Donovan daughters to possibly determine the identity of the remains.