Goodbye, 2019: Here are the biggest headlines from the Myrtle Beach area in the last year
From the Horry County administrator’s termination to the infamous red Jeep during Hurricane Dorian to high-profile criminal trials, the Myrtle Beach area has had its share of headlines in 2019.
The year started as an alleged extortion investigation into an Horry County elected official was underway, and as the year continued, the Grand Strand experienced a hurricane that caused little damage to the area, criminal trials reached their completion and high school sports teams made way to winning state championships.
Here are notable stories — from crime to sports — that made headlines around Horry County this year:
Horry County
The City of Myrtle Beach sued Horry County in March over collections of a 1.5 percent fee on hospitality services within municipal limits. The dispute has led to hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on lawyers, hours of debate in mediation and resolutions filed by the state legislature. Until the matter is settled, governments cannot spend the revenue from the fee.
The dispute wasn’t the only high-profile legal battle the county faced this year.
One of Horry County’s top-paid employees was terminated after a four-month-long alleged extortion investigation over a lunch County Chairman Johnny Gardner attended. Former county administrator Chris Eldridge left the position in April, and the county will likely pay him well over $305,000 by April 2020 for his termination.
It took four months to get to the point of Eldridge’s termination after he requested a S.C. Law Enforcement Division investigation into Gardner, his associate, Luke Barefoot, and two members of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation.
Coastal cities
Myrtle Beach City Council voted against allowing an ordinance that would permit swingers clubs to operate within city limits in November. Chris Abram, owner of swingers club You Know Where in Fayetteville, North Carolina, brought the idea to council as he sought to open a location in Myrtle Beach. A swingers club is not currently included in the city’s zoning code.
A topic on the city’s radar from last year, spilled into 2019: Myrtle Beach police announced in February that some stores on Ocean Boulevard had CBD products that tested positive for THC, the main ingredient in marijuana, and were sold to customers. South Carolina law allows CBD oil to be sold as long as it has no more than .09 percent THC.
In May, the City of North Myrtle Beach purchased most of the historic Ingram Dunes site. The city bought 7.24 acres of the 9.35-acre site for $2.5 million. The remaining 2.11 acres will be subdivided into seven lots to construct seven single-family homes along Strand Avenue.
Crime
Horry County and the cities within it have had a number crimes reported, notably the types of crimes being murders, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies and armed robberies this year.
The county had one double murder that drew attention over the summer at a bingo hall and shook witnesses, 911 calls confirm.
A father, Steve Johnson Sr., and his son, Steve “Sparky” Johnson Jr., who were owners of Waccamaw Bingo hall, were murdered July 26 at the hall, just off U.S. Highway 501 in the Forestbrook area. Horry County police charged Derrick Rivera, 29, and Bratton Britton, 40, both of Georgetown County, with murder and other crimes related to the incident. The hall has permanently closed since the murders.
Two high-profile trials — one local and another federal — happened this year, sending a kidnapper to decades in prison and sentencing a bank robber to death.
Sidney Moorer was found guilty of the 2013 kidnapping of Heather Elvis and sentenced to 30 years in prison during a September trial. The trial was Moorer’s second after his first resulted in a mistrial in 2016. His wife, Tammy Moorer, is also in prison for Elvis’ disappearance.
Brandon Council, who killed two CresCom bank employees in Conway in 2017, was sentenced to death in October following a federal trial that lasted nearly three weeks. It took the jury about 25 minutes to find Council guilty of the robbery and murders of Donna Major, who was at the teller counter, and Katie Skeen, who was in her nearby office.
Hurricane Dorian
Hurricane Dorian began churning in the Atlantic in late August and later slammed the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm. Dorian made its way to the east coast area by Sept. 5 and teetered between a Category 3 to 2. The Grand Strand experienced little damage, though there was storm surge, flash flood and tornadoes in the area.
What drew a lot of chatter during the storm was the infamous red Jeep that was found near 37th Avenue North in Myrtle Beach. According to a Myrtle Beach police report, the owner of the Jeep let his cousin borrow it “one to two weeks ago” ahead of the storm. Police were unable to get in contact with the person who allegedly drove the vehicle onto the beach, the report states.
Investigative reporting
The Sun News and its sister paper, The State in Columbia, worked together for nearly four months investigating massage parlors in South Carolina. Experts said law enforcement agencies in Horry County making prostitution busts at spas may be arresting victims of human trafficking. The investigation found that law enforcement agencies in other areas of the country are discovering there is a weightier crime other than prostitution happening.
Massage workers arrested in cases similar to those in Horry County have been identified as victims of human trafficking. Workers are lured to the United States under false promises of legitimate work, and are manipulated into performing illegal sex acts by traffickers who use threats and coercion to control nearly every aspect of the women’s lives — from where they live to what they eat.
In the months after two Horry County Sheriff’s deputies drowned two women after driving around flood barricades during Hurricane Florence, The Sun News did a detailed report on the events that happened the night of the drownings. Nikki Green and Wendy Newton, who were both in the caged part of a transportation unit vehicle on the way to mental health hospitals, died in the drowning. The deputies — Stephen Flood and Joshua Bishop — were fired from the sheriff’s office and now face manslaughter charges.
Police practices were also questioned during a Myrtle Beach police raid at the wrong home, scaring a mother and her children and ultimately leading the family to move to a new neighborhood after the raid. The Sun News sat down with the family to report on their account of Myrtle Beach police raiding their home and children witnessing their mother being mistakenly detained. The door police were intending to knock on was next door, nearly 15 feet away.
Sports
Not long after the year started, Coastal Carolina University’s head football coach Joe Moglia stepped down after seven seasons. Coach Jamey Chadwell took over the position and Moglia continues as chairman of athletics.
In high school football news, Green Sea Floyds High School took home a state championship for the second year in a row. The Trojans defeated Ridge Spring-Monetta in the S.C. Class A state title in Columbia this month.
Green Sea wasn’t the only team in the county to win a back-to-back state title this year. In November, North Myrtle Beach’s volleyball team took home a win against Pickens in the Class 4A state championship. The team won all four of its playoff matches without dropping a set.
News of a college football bowl game to be hosted in the area became official this year. Coastal Carolina University will be the home of the state’s only college football bowl game in December 2020. Horry County Council’s administration committee voted unanimously in September to recommend the county approve spending $40,000 of yearly state accommodations tax money to help promote the event for the next six years.
This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 1:17 PM.
