UPDATE | School responds after connection to body found at Edgefield landfill

admin • Aug 13, 2016 News

Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016

AIKEN COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) — The Aiken County School District have released a statement after law enforcement checked dumpsters at Ridge Spring-Monetta schools after a body was found in a Edgefield landfill:

“Law enforcement and SLED made an alarming discovery yesterday when what is believed to be human remains were found at the Edgefield Landfill. According to the ongoing SLED investigation, dumpsters at our Ridge Spring-Monetta schools were emptied just prior to the discovery. The safety and security of our students and staff is of utmost importance to us. Neither will be compromised by the ongoing investigation, which is not expected to impact the start of school on Monday.”

The body is currently being sent for an autopsy.

Friday, Aug. 12, 2016

EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) — The sound of lawnmowers and passing cars is about all you’d normally hear at the end of the day in Ridge Spring, South Carolina.

Latisha Smith has lived in Saluda County her whole life, along with others in her quite neighborhood. She lives with her grandparents, who’ve lived here for several decades.

She, like many, had several reactions to the news of a body being found near their home.

“I thought it was strange, I thought it was weird, I thought it was scary,” Smith says. “It seems like crime is getting closer and closer to home or what I call home.”

She went to Ridge Spring Monetta Elementary School and says her town is too small and calm for anything like this to happen.

“I don’t want to believe that it came from our dumpster,” Smith says. “Like, I’m thinking maybe somebody came from a different town and dropped it off. But you can never be, like, naive or in denial about what your hometown people can do.”

It comes after investigators discovered a body mixed in with trash at the Tri-County Solida Waste Authority Facility twenty minutes up the road in Edgefield County.

Officials from the Sheriff’s Office in Aiken, Saluda and Edgefield county helped dig through the trash and inspected the truck that made the trip. The decomposed body in question found after being dumped inside one of the warehouses at the facility.

After hours of investigating, officials with SLED confirmed the body originally came from one of the dumpsters behind the elementary school.

“I just feel like somebody got away with a crime,” Smith says. “If they can’t tell who it is, then I don’t think they can tell who done it. There’s not cameras out there so I literally feel like somebody got away with murder.”

All Smith and her neighbors can do is lock their doors and pay closer attention to the cars coming into their town. She says they’re praying justice will come to the family members who’ve lost one of their own.

“Whoever did it should go to jail,” Smith says, “so the person that was found, their family can get justice and, you know, move on from it.”

Captain Wash with the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office says the investigation has been handed over to SLED. He says the body was so badly damaged it’s impossible to tell the person’s age, race and even gender.

An autopsy is expected to be performed tomorrow. School is scheduled to begin at the elementary school on Monday.

Friday, Aug. 12, 2016

EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) — Deputies are on the scene at the transfer station on Weaver Road where a body was found.

The body was found at the Tri County Waste Facility in Johnston according to law enforcement. They say the body is too decomposed to tell if it is a man or a woman at this point.

Captain Chris Wash with Edgefield Sheriff’s Office says the coroner is sending for an autopsy.SLED Crime Scene Unit is also coming to do forensics of the scene.

Aiken, Edgefield and Saluda counties as well as SLED are investigating.

More information to come on this developing story.

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Source: News