Trial begins for Murrells Inlet woman charged in connection to husband’s death

A Murrells Inlet woman who has been charged in connection to her husband’s death after his remains were found in 2019 stood trial Tuesday in Horry County.

Irene Clodfelter has been accused of bagging up Hubert Clodfelter’s remains and storing it under a home in Myrtle Beach Travel Park. She is charged as an accessory in connection to his death.

She was arrested June 2019 by the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Department.

It is not clear exactly clear when Hubert Clodfelter was killed. No one has been charged for his death.

Hubert’s remains were identified and confirmed through dental records, according to the Horry County Coroner’s Office.

During opening statements Tuesday morning, Prosecutor Seth Oskin explained how Hubert’s two daughters had been trying to reach their dad since their last meeting in December 2016 before getting suspicious of Irene Clodfelter’s stories about their father’s whereabouts and making the trip to South Carolina.

Oskin pointed out Irene Clodfelter had mentioned Hubert Clodfelter wanted to be a recluse, saying he wanted to be a mountain man. She was telling Hubert Clodfelter’s daughters stories that made him think their dad was still alive, he added.

“They were flat out exhausted by trying to find their father for so long,” Oskin said.

By March 2019, Oskin added, the daughters spoke to the authorities in Georgetown County about their dad’s disappearance. Law enforcement officials conducted a welfare check at his home in Murrells Inlet, but they never made contact with him, he added.

Clay Hopkins, the defendant’s attorney, spoke to the jury about how his client repeatedly told investigators who she thought killed her husband. He said Irene Clodfelter was worried they would think she was responsible for her husband’s death.

“She was so nervous,” Hopkins said. “She was so scared she would be considered suspect no. 1.”

Following opening statements, the prosecution’s first witness was Hubert Clodfelter’s daughter Karen Chappel, of Orlando, Fla., who testified about how she continuously called her dad after her last time seeing him in 2016. She recalled him being upset about his son-in-law remarrying after her sister’s death.

Since she couldn’t get up with her dad, she started to call Irene Clodfelter whose story changed every few months, Chappel said. She and her sister Clinger, came to the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Officer and filed a missing person’s report in March 2019 after the welfare checks.

Chappel choked up on the stand when recounting when her and sister went to the home in Travel Park, where they discovered Hubert Clodfelter’s remains underneath the deck.

“We were in shock...” she said. “ I don’t know what else to say. It was hard.”

Another person who took the stand Tuesday was Jill Domogauer, a crime scene investigator with the Horry County Police Department.

She recalled being sent to the home in the park after Huber Clodfelter’s body was found by his daughters. She spoke about entering the crime scene, taking photos of the area where the remains were located and manipulating the bag.

She said when she initially stepped on the property she didn’t smell a decomposing body. It wasn’t until she began handling the bag that she could smell the remains and see a hand and a heel in a position she called “unnatural.”

She noted that the body was wrapped in black bags and strapped down with tape. She also found more items, including a sledgehammer, according to her testimony.

The prosecution also brought out Dawad Oswald, who was an investigator with the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office at the time of Hubert Clodfelter’s disappearance.

He told the jury about his initial conversations with Irene Clodfelter in which she said Hubert Clodfelter was on the run, and that he asked her to take him to Florida to get on his boat.

While Oswald was still on the stand, Prosecutor Oskin began playing an interview between investigators and Irene Clodfelter after Hubert Clodfelter’s remains were found.

During this interview, she talked about how Hubert Clodfelter told her he was involved in a sex ring and wanted to lay low because there was an investigation. In the recording, the defendant said the last time she saw her husband was in February 2017. She said before he left he gave $5,000 and instructed her to keep up with the business. Hubert Clodfelter owned property and managed tenants.

Before long, she admitted to investigators that she found her husband’s remains at the home in Myrtle Beach Travel Park, where she wrapped it up and taped it. She said she had discovered it weeks prior, but she wasn’t exactly sure when.

However, she said she didn’t say anything to investigators because she suspected her son was behind it since he and Hubert Clodfelter had issues, one of them being about an insurance claim.

At one point of the interview, she was asked if she killed her husband. She maintained that she didn’t but told law enforcement officials her husband was physically and mentally abusive to her.

During that interview, she kept apologizing for not telling authorities sooner, saying: “I’m sorry. I wish this hadn’t happened.”

Oswald’s testimony will resume Wednesday morning at the Horry County Clerk of Court’s building in Conway.