The fugitive next door: 2 suspects who spent decades on the run chose Horry County as home
Two violent suspects — one accused of being a serial rapist, the other a prison escapee — were found in recent months in Horry County. But, questions remain on why the suspects who spent decades on the run decided to make the area home.
Namely, why or how did both men wind up in the Myrtle Beach area?
Neighbors say both were quiet and did not cause trouble. Police have yet to say why they believe the men settled down in Horry County or if it was just coincidence.
On Wednesday, Horry County police arrested Giles Daniel Warrick, 60, and he was charged with being a fugitive of justice. Washington D.C. police say Warrick is the suspect of a murder and a series of rapes in the Maryland area in the 1990s committed by the “Potomac River Rapist.”
In August, police arrested Stanley Lee Rogers, 63, as a fugitive. Officials say Rogers spent more than 30 years on the run after escaping from a North Carolina prison.
A quiet neighbor
Police and neighbors say Warrick did not live at a Conway area home for long before his arrest. Neighbor Jamie Gore said it couldn’t have been for much more than a year.
“He was just really quiet,” Gore said.
He said he didn’t see Warrick outside of his home much. Gore said he exchanged greetings with Warrick when they saw each other at the nearby Sunhouse gas station.
Tax records show Warrick paid tax bills on several vehicles in Horry County in 2018 and 2019. He owned a couple of Chevrolets and a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
In 2018, Warrick and another person bought a house at 267 Oak Log Lake Road off S.C. Highway 905, according to court records. The home sits near a large pond and at the end of a long driveway, with “no trespassing” signs dotting the trees. A man removing drywall from inside the home on Friday afternoon said he didn’t know anything.
Warrick and the second owner filed a civil lawsuit in Horry County against U.S. Bank over the property. The duo claimed they were not told of defects before the purchase.
Warrick’s lawyer on the civil suit, Phillip Thompson, did not respond in time for this report.
Washington D.C. metro attacks
Police say Warrick committed a series of sexual assaults in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area between 1991 and 1998. In many cases, the victims were sexually assaulted inside their homes.
In the last attack, on Aug. 1, 1998, Christine Mirzayan was hit in the head with a rock and killed near her Georgetown, Washington D.C., home and her body was left near a highway. In the following years, police offered a reward for information about the attacks but made no arrests.
Authorities say they used DNA from the crimes and genealogy to locate Warrick.
Horry County police Deputy Chief Kenny Davis said they were involved in the case for about a week after police in Montgomery County and Washington D.C. contacted their office. The U.S. Marshals Regional task force assisted in the arrest.
Davis said he was not aware of what led police in Maryland to Warrick’s South Carolina location. Washington D.C. police referred The Sun News to a video of a Thursday news conference announcing the arrest and refused to provide additional details.
Police went to Warrick’s Oak Log Lake Road around 3 a.m. Wednesday to make the arrest, Davis said. According to an arrest warrant, Warrick was trying to flee when police went to cuff him. The warrants called him a flight risk.
Horry County police will review old cases to ensure Warrick is not a suspect in any local crimes.
“We’re exploring anything that will bring justice to our victims,” Davis said.
As a fugitive of justice, Warrick has two options. He can fight extradition, which is often hard to win, and requires a Governor’s Warrant for him to be taken to another state. Warrick can also waive extradition, allowing police from the Washington D.C. area to transport him back to face charges of murder and rape. Horry County police spokeswoman Mikayla Moskov said she did not know if Warrick waived extradition.
Warrick was incarcerated in J. Reuben Long Detention Center as of Friday afternoon.
Wednesday’s arrest was not Warrick’s first run-in with police in the area. In May, Myrtle Beach cited Warrick for not having a driver’s license. It is unclear if Warrick was identified as a wanted subject for the 1990s attacks when Myrtle Beach police stopped him. Washington D.C. police declined to answer when he was entered into a national database as a wanted suspect.
“If we knew he was wanted, we would have taken him into custody,” Myrtle Beach police spokesman Cpl. Thomas Vest said.
Second fugitive arrest
Warrick’s arrest was the second time in months that a fugitive who spent decades on the run was found in Horry County. In August, members of the U.S. Marshals task force and local police arrested Stanley Lee Rogers, 63, at a William Nobles Road home outside of Aynor.
In 1994, a judge sentenced Rogers to 40 years in prison for an armed robbery in Carteret County, North Carolina. He spent about three years in prison and was at the Wilkes Correctional Center in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, until he escaped in 1996 while mowing the grass.
Rogers also served 25 years in prison after his conviction of kidnapping.
He is currently housed at a Tabor City, North Carolina prison, according to the North Carolina Department of Correction data.
James “Carroll” Hardwick lives next door to Rogers’ 401 William Nobles Road address in the Aynor area. He said that he would see the man he knew as “Mr. Bobby” raking the leaves, but the two rarely spoke.
“He was really quiet,” Hardwick said. “Always kept to himself.”
The neighbor said he always wondered what Rogers did for income. Hardwick said Rogers occasionally sold items, like in a yard sale, at a nearby produce stand.
When police arrested Rogers, Hardwick said a friend told him that Bobby was the suspect and it took him a moment to realize they were referring to his neighbor.
“I was kind of shocked,” Hardwick said.
