Murrells Inlet bait shop reopens following fire, owner’s death

A Murrells Inlet bait shop is re-opening its doors after a fire burned the store, and the shop’s owner was killed.

Perry’s Bait and Tackle, at 3965 U.S. 17 Business, was shuttered Sept. 29 when flames licked the brightly-painted, longstanding shop, and its owner, 36-year-old Jessica Lynn Hill, who was widely known and beloved among the inlet fishing community, died.

“As our community, friends and family came together - we turned the impossible possible! Together we polished Jessica's beloved shop from all the smoke and ash! And as Jessica would have wished... we re-opened the shop this morning! Please come and support us this weekend!,” a Facebook post on the shop’s page put up Friday night reads.

Murrells Inlet-Garden City Fire crews responded to the fire about 10 a.m. that morning, and quickly extinguished the blaze. Soon after, Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called out to investigate the fire’s “suspicious circumstances,” according to a GCSO police report.

A witness tried to stop the man who is accused of setting the fire, according to police documents.

Eric Justin Perry, 35, who had been married to Hill, was later discovered driving a boat with Hill’s body on board, GCSO said. Perry was arrested and is charged with second-degree arson in the burning of the shop and with Hill’s murder, according to police.

The Georgetown County Coroner’s Office ruled Hill’s cause of death to be strangulation and head trauma. Her death created ripples through the community, and mourners begun leaving mementos outside the bait shop after the fire and Hill’s death shuttered it.

Hill was honored in a memorial along the water in Murrells Inlet Monday night and was laid to rest at a funeral service Thursday. She leaves three children behind.

This story was originally published October 7, 2017 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Murrells Inlet bait shop reopens following fire, owner’s death."