DNA match leads to charge in Society Hill burglaries
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The May 8 meeting of the Society Hill Town Council was cut and dry with no new business or old business listed on the meeting’s agenda.
During their perusal of the monthly financial statements, councilwoman Deborah Harrell asked mayor Tommy Bradshaw about the status of their budget worksession.
“Isn’t it time for us to go over the budget and everything, the finances, for the fiscal year,” Harrell asked.
Bradshaw said that it is time but that he has been taking extra time with the budget this year.
“I have a little bit of a late start and then because of our financial predicaments that we’ve been in as of late, I wanted to go over everything,” Bradshaw said. “As you know, it is my responsibility as mayor to draft a budget and present it to you all at a worksession. This time I have meticulously been checking with the municipal association, I’m waiting for some information back from the Darlington County auditors. I’ve checked with our CPA…I want to make sure that as close as possible every dollar is accounted for.”
Bradshaw also said that he wanted to tighten up what money the town spends, if at all possible.
“I want to have our expenses honed in as close as possible and it has taken me some time,” Bradshaw said. “I don’t have it ready yet and until I can get it down pat to present to you there is not use in having a meeting. We have to have two readings for the budget and a work session and then we can have inputs and I can explain to you where we stand, what we expect to get and what moneys we have. I’m here to tell you now that what money we are going to have, and obligations that we’re already obligated down to, we don’t have a lot of wiggle. We’ll meet and discuss that.”
Police Chief David Young updated council on the arrest he told them about last month.
“We had one burglary where someone attempted to go in a residence,” Young said. “They actually went in to the storage building and ransacked the inside of the storage building and he had cut himself on the glass going into the building. Well, he also attempted to go into the house; he didn’t think anyone was home but the lady was home. He tried to pry the door open and he busted the window…she yelled at him and he ran off. I came out for that burglary and there was some blood on the window and the back of the residence. That blood was swabbed and it was sent to SLED for some DNA comparison.”
Young said that after a very long wait the police department had received the results.
“It’s been almost a year now and we got a letter from SLED and they did get a CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) hit on that young man (who is in jail for one burglary in Society Hill). So, we will be able to charge him for that particular burglary as well.”
Melissa Burch reported on the recent Taste of Society Hill.
“I think you all saw that there was a big crowd,” Burch said. “It was a lot of fun; it was really great. The vendors were all fabulous. We only had a couple that didn’t show.
One of them was the Cartersville Winery folks and they had a fire so obviously that circumvented their efforts to get here. We had a lot of new vendors that we didn’t have last year and a lot of the tried and true from last year so it was really nice. We don’t have the numbers yet, we’re still calculating. The feedback from everything was positive.”
Burch said that the whole town came together to make the event happen and she was grateful.
“I want to formally thank everyone for the efforts that they put forth,” Burch said. “It is no simple undertaking to put on something like that. It takes commitment, it takes passion; it takes interest. It takes time. The money it takes is the least. I think that we pulled together fabulously. I think the whole town should be noted for making a success out of it.”
