SLED charges Bamberg County man with murder of girlfriend found in burnt car

BAMBERG COUNTY, S.C. (WIS) - The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has charged a Bamberg County man with the murder of his girlfriend, a 25-year-old mother of three who was reported missing last week after sending an ominous text to a friend.

Jarrett Davis, 28, is facing charges of murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, unlawful possession of a firearm, arson and desecration of human remains.

Megan Bodiford, of Denmark, was last heard from on Thursday, April 25, when according to an incident report she texted a friend that she feared Davis was going to kill her.

On Tuesday, human remains were discovered in a burnt car off Turn Ray Road not far from where the couple stayed.

“It’s gut-wrenching because he did not have to do all of that at all,” Stephanie Nickens, one of Bodiford’s cousins, said on Friday after the arrest. “I keep having this thought in my mind of how fearful she was in that moment.”

Nickens said this is the outcome she feared, but hoped was not the case.

“My heart just sank even deeper than it was before,” she said.

Arrest warrants allege that Davis shot and killed Bodiford on Thursday night, and then set her car on fire while she was inside.

Human remains were found in a burnt car five days later along a dirt road beneath some utility poles.

That discovery is less than two miles from Bodiford’s last known location, on Ghents Branch Road, in Denmark.

Another warrant accuses Davis of illegally possessing a shotgun based on his prior criminal history as a convicted felon.

“If he would have been locked up the way that he was supposed to be the first time, maybe he wouldn’t have even gotten a chance to get this far with her,” Nickens said.

The Bamberg County Sheriff’s Office, along with SLED, executed a search warrant at the couple’s home on Saturday, and took Davis into custody on an active domestic violence arrest warrant.

Bodiford was nowhere to be found, but her 4-month-old baby was there unharmed.

Investigators left that residence with an iPhone, multiple security cameras, a laptop and a baby monitor, according to a search warrant obtained by WIS News 10.

Some neighbors said there had been warning signs.

One man said Thursday he woke up to gunshots near the home this month.

Nickens said she feels like law enforcement failed in its duty to protect Bodiford.

“The people that we pay to protect us, I feel like they didn’t do their job at all,” she said. “It could’ve been prevented. It could’ve. It definitely could’ve.”

Bodiford called Davis’ probation officer and law enforcement multiple times, Nickens said.

“It’s just different occasions where she reached out for help,” she said.

Nickens says she hopes Bodiford will be remembered for how she lived, and not for her tragic death.

“I want everyone to focus on what a beautiful soul she had, just a wonderful mother that she was,” she said. “She loved being around people. If you look on her social media, you see so many friends coming together and posting memories that they have of them with her.”

The Bamberg County Coroner’s Office has not yet independently released a positive identification for the remains that were found on Tuesday.

DNA and dental records need to be studied first, Coroner Wallace Hicks said.

Davis is currently at the Bamberg County Detention Center.

Feel more informed, prepared, and connected with WIS. For more free content like this, subscribe to our email newsletter, and download our apps. Have feedback that can help us improve? Click here.

Copyright 2024 WIS. All rights reserved.