‘Baby Grace’s’ death ruled homicide by Horry County coroner as community mourns

A cross woven with flowers and topped with a teddy bear sat in the front yard of Baby Grace’s home in Socastee on Friday as a community mourned and grappled to find answers.

On Friday, the coroner ruled Baby Grace’s death a homicide, but officials provided no further detail about the circumstances that led to the discovery of the lifeless 5-month-old in a creek nearby after a three-day search that ended when she was found about 3:45 p.m. Thursday.

“I don’t understand the whole thing,” Jennifer Brunner, Toney’s roommate for more then seven months, said. “I just have a big hole. I have a huge hole in my world right now.”

Baby Grace’s mother, Sarah Lane Toney, 33, said she lost the infant in the rushing creek after entering the water near her Simms Drive residence Tuesday. Toney has been charged with unlawful neglect of a child or helpless person, but more serious charges are expected to follow the baby’s discovery, police said.

Brunner said she didn’t see Toney or the baby the morning the baby disappeared. She awoke and saw Toney’s door closed and thought Toney was in her bedroom with the baby until police knocked on her door and asked if she knew Toney, who was sitting in an officer’s car, and asked if a baby was inside her home.

“I immediately had that big hole or big gap because the baby was either with me or with her [Toney] all the time,” she said.

The night before, Brunner was with Toney and the baby in her living room before she went to bed around midnight. She said Toney had been on her phone off and on that night and had been upset, but said Toney seemed calm and the baby was giggling and happy, so she went to bed.

Brunner said in the week leading up to the incident Toney had seemed agitated and had been saying “nonsensical things,” and that just gradually got worse; however she never thought Toney would harm the baby.

She said she knew Toney was on probation, but didn’t know why and that Toney often kept her in the dark about things.

“Just because you’re someone’s roommate doesn’t mean you know everything they do, or do the same things they do,” she said.

Earlier Thursday, an Horry County judge denied bond for Toney in a hearing at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center.

Speaking in a calm voice and showing little emotion, Toney gave Judge Aaron Butler her account: “I went into the water with her and was unable to hold on to her. I didn’t intentionally put her in any danger. I was going with her and I wasn’t able to hold on to her when the water sucked me in.”

Brunner said she was baffled by Toney’s emotionless response, and said that was not the woman that she knew. She said she hadn’t spoken to Toney since she was taken away by Horry County police, and said she felt a mix of anger, confusion and sadness.

Brunner helped care for “Baby Grace” by making her bottles, feeding her, changing her diapers, dressing her, and singing her to sleep.

“I was like a second mom,” she said.

Brunner said she was trying to stay positive as she picked up the pieces.

“I’m not going to let the events at the end of her life define her. She was wonderful,” she said. “Grace was in my life for a reason. I needed her at the time and she needed me, and maybe God was ready to have her back so that he could send her to someone else. I don’t know.”

The sky had wept rain off and on throughout the search creating a dreary backdrop and difficult conditions as workers from multiple agencies scoured woods, swamps, and waterways until divers with S.C. Department of Natural Resources found the baby after workers with the Horry County Stromwater Department removed a large tree in the creek.

Police said the baby was discovered about 50 yards from where Toney entered the water on Simms Drive.

The brown creek Toney entered with her child sat stagnant the day after the discovery, no longer whirling with a strong current fueled by all the downpours.

Kaylee White said the mood in the neighborhood has been shock and sadness, but said she felt some peace knowing the baby had been found.

“I feel closure knowing that they found her and that she’s at peace now, and they’re not still looking. They had an awesome crew team out here. It helps me sleep better at night knowing that she was found and that she can be laid to rest,” White said.

White said she has started a gofundme page to help raise money to go toward the baby’s burial. She said once her goal is met she will give Lt. Raul Denis with Horry County police access to the account, so he can turn funding over to the family.

“I’m just trying to help. She needs a proper burial,” she said.

Brunner said lieu of placing flowers near her home for Baby Grace, she preferred for mourners to donate the funds they would put toward flowers or other gifts toward charities for children.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 2:09 PM with the headline "‘Baby Grace’s’ death ruled homicide by Horry County coroner as community mourns."