SUMTER, S.C. — The Sumter County Coroner's Office and the Sumter County Sheriff's Office say a man who was killed and wrapped in a tarp in the woods of Sumter County has been identified.
Coroner Robbie Baker said Wednesday the man was 34-year-old Frederick Ricardo Nelson Jr. of Sumter. Baker said Nelson was identified through forensic testing conducted by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Nelson's family then confirmed the results.
"Well, the specifics I'm not able to comment on just yet," Mark Bordeaux with Sumter County Sheriff's Office said. "But I can say that our colleagues at SLED are very thorough, and of course, they use dental records, fingerprints, DNA and of course, any witnesses or next of kin who may have reached out to them expressing their concerns, but they have been identified."
A day earlier, Baker's office released detailed information about tattoos on Nelson's body in an attempt to identify the man.
Baker said an autopsy done Tuesday at the Medical University of South Carolina concluded Nelson died of multiple gunshot wounds.
"It is definitely a homicide with multiple gunshots," Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker said.
Investigators said Nelson's body was found around 10 a.m. on Nov. 26 by a group of hunters in a set of woods along Cimarron Road, which is near the Rembert and Pisgah communities. Baker said the group of hunters noticed a smell and, upon finding the tarp, pulled it back. Baker said they concluded that something in the tarp was dead and called law enforcement.
The investigation isn't over yet, Bordeaux says. Investigators are still trying to figure out who shot the man and left him in a tarp in the woods for nearly two weeks before his body was found.
"In this case, a stretch of woods used periodically by people in the community, used by the owners and used by hunters in this case, it is not necessarily going to be discovered right away," Bordeaux says about the time it took to find the body.
"We've got a body that's been decomped in a week, for a week and a half obviously the body's not in its original form," Baker said. "But there wasn't characteristics internally medically from the doctor that would be associated with a person that was older that might have heart issues and stuff of that nature. But the bone density, the frame is, you know of adult male from about 18 to 45."
Bordeaux said the man was not reported to the sheriff's office as missing, which could happen for various reasons.
"Family members may be out of town, out of state and out of contact. And in those cases, they may not realize…if they're not in regular contact with their loved one or friend, they may not even realize they have gone missing," Bordeaux said. "In some cases, a person may make it a habit of taking trips, doing their own thing and not telling the family. The family or friends may just be used to 'Well, they're away right now. Maybe hunting, fishing or seeing friends are on a trip,' and they don't take it as a matter to be concerned with. Of course, you wouldn't unless you thought something was suspicious."
But now, with work from the sheriff's office and SLED, Bordeaux says they're closer to finding justice for the victims' family.
"If their person has been missing, they'll have some peace, we hope, that they've been identified," Bordeaux said. "But of course, the tragic news is terribly sad. And we can only imagine what a family would be going through at that time."
Anybody who feels they have information that could assist in this investigation is urged to contact The Sumter County Coroner's Office at 803-436-2111 or The Sumter County Sheriff's Office at 803-436-2000.