Man arrested in killing of pregnant woman
A man has been arrested in a case in which a pregnant woman was killed before being set on fire and left in the woods near Screaming Eagle Road in Richland County.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department charged Tristan Gist, 23, with murder and death or injury of a child in utero due to the commission of a violent crime and took him into custody Monday afternoon, WIS reports.
Deputies say Gist had a child with the victim, 22-year-old Dierra Fisher, who was 21 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.
According to investigators, Gist shot Fisher before driving her body to the wooded area while the woman’s children were in the car. Upon arrival, Gist removed the body from the car and set it on fire, WIS reports.
Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said Fisher died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
— Compiled by Amanda Coyne, Assistant News Editor
Record number of sea turtles nesting on SC shores
More than 4,600 sea turtle nests were found along the South Carolina coast in 2012, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
Numbers like that have never been seen before in South Carolina, The Post and Courier reports. However, those numbers may be misleading. More beaches are being monitored than ever before, which has led to the discovery of more turtle nests.
There are definitely more turtles on South Carolina’s beaches, though, a DNR official told The State.
In 2012, nearly 2,000 nests were found on the six beaches most popular with nesting turtles. That’s five times as many as were found on those same beaches in 2003, according to The State.
Recent increases in the number of nesting turtles could be related to an increasing number of turtles surviving until sexual maturity, as the reptiles take two to three decades to mature, according to The State.
— Compiled by Amanda Coyne, Assistant News Editor
Efforts to re-elect Haley already underway
Gov. Nikki Haley hasn’t formally announced that she will run for re-election in 2014, but efforts to keep her in the Governor’s Mansion are already ongoing, The State reports.
Her campaign operation is already open in downtown Columbia and has received $1.5 million in contributions. Two weeks ago, a grassroots steering committee was announced, according to The State.
Tim Pearson, Haley’s 2010 campaign manager who left his position as her chief of staff to become her political consultant, told The State that “there’s not a segment of the political world out there that’s not on [Haley’s] side.”
Pearson told said campaign is preparing for a primary though two potential challengers — State Treasurer Curtis Loftis and state Sen. Tom Davis — have decided not to run. In the election, he believe she will face 2010 rival Vincent Sheheen, who lost by 4.5 percent.
— Compiled by Amanda Coyne, Assistant News Editor