Kidnapping suspect found dead in truck
A man accused of a Tuesday abduction was found dead Wednesday afternoon, The State reports.
James Murphy Brigman Jr. was found in Calhoun County in his truck with a single bullet wound to his head. The truck was found in a dirt driveway off U.S. 176, 10 miles west of St. Matthews.
The 40-year-old was sought by police on charges of kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct and the possession of a weapon while committing a violent crime, after a woman was abducted on Greystone Boulevard Tuesday.
The woman was an acquaintance of Brigman’s and was leaving a meeting at the time of her abduction, according to The State. She was found in St. Matthews Tuesday evening.
— Amanda Coyne, Assistant News Editor
Former substitute teacher convicted of sexual abuse
A former substitute teacher and evangelical worker has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being accused of sexually abusing a boy on a camping trip, The State reports.
Eric Nelson Vancleave, of West Columbia, was convicted of second-degree criminal sexual misconduct with a minor, lewd act on a minor, third-degree criminal sexual conduct and aggravated assault and battery.
Vancleave was convicted of molesting a boy at Barnwell State Park, where they were camping. He was also accused of abusing the boy multiple times between 2002 and 2005 and of abusing three other boys he met through Pavilion Ministries in Cayce between 2000 and 2007.
Vancleave was arrested in 2010 and charged with 16 crimes relating to sexual abuse.
_— Amanda Coyne, Assistant News Editor_
Sanford jokes about eating piglets from stunt
So it turns out Mark Sanford wasn’t kidding about cutting out pork.
In 2004, as a political stunt, the former South Carolina governor carried two pigs into the Statehouse to protest what he called wasteful spending.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday, he said those pigs — “Pork” and “Barrel” — didn’t fare so well.
“Unfortunately, they were barbecued,” Sanford said on the show. “They were great little guys.”
A Sanford spokesman told The State later in the day the candidate for the First Congressional district was joking and that he didn’t eat them.
According to WACH, Sanford said he was “99 percent sure” the porcine pair ended up at a Sticky Fingers restaurant in Charleston.
—Thad Moore, News Editor