Meagan Jackson: South Carolina woman killed baby daddy, locked children up forcing them to pee in containers
HORRY COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA: Judge Steven John on Thursday, November 19, set bond at $100,000 for former Horry County Deputy Coroner Chris Dontell and Meagan Jackson. Dontell and Jackson are charged with murder in the death of Gregory Vincent Rice, who worked as a deputy coroner, and had been reported missing. His body was found on November 8.
Jackson and Rice have multiple children in common. And she now faces four counts of unlawful neglect of a child. According to The Sun, Jackson has also been accused of child neglect after allegedly locking several of their kids inside their bedrooms and causing some to urinate in containers. Cops said that Jackson forced the three youngest children to stay in their rooms and allegedly prevented them from leaving by locking the doors and windows.
As per an arrest warrant, "The rooms were secured with an electronic lock that had the batteries removed." Reportedly, there was no doorknob on the inside of the door, and the lock required a key code to unlock, which the children didn't know. The bedroom windows also had padlocks on them, which made opening them impossible. "It is not clear precisely how long the children were forced to remain in the rooms, but some of the children urinated in the rooms using whatever containers were available", reads the warrant. The children were taken by social services and reportedly placed in the custody of Jackson's half-brother.
On November 19, one of the children, Zachary Rice, spoke before the judge, asking that bond be denied. "Given the allegedly brutal and premeditated nature of my father's murder, I believe that Mr Dontell and Meagan Jackson are a high risk to the community," Zachary said. As per their arrest warrants, Jackson and Dontell each “act[ed] in concert with others with malice aforethought to murder the victim.” The warrants further said, “The defendant and others did conspire to kill the victim and the victim did die as a result of their actions. Evidence produced by the investigation includes forensic, physical and, [sic] digital evidence, as well as witness statements corroborating said evidence.”
Vincent Rice was reported missing on October 5. He was last heard from three days earlier. Horry County police coordinated searches with other local agencies and the CUE Center for Missing Persons. Police officers conducted physical searches, interviews with those who knew Rice and tracked the victim's cell phone location. On Sunday, November 8, Rice’s body was recovered in the early morning hours along the Little Pee Dee River at the Horry County-Marion County border. An autopsy was then performed at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Shawn Harju, Jackson’s half-brother, told the press that Rice was a great father — his children supposedly would always run to for a hug when he got home. “He was a great dad to his kids,” he said. “The kids loved him.”
He further said, “I actually had been trying to get a hold of him,” adding he didn’t know until weeks later that Rice was missing. “I never heard anything else until she got arrested.” Harju also said that he has no idea of any type of motive his sister would have and he “never thought my sister could do something like that or be involved in something like that.”