Remains found two years after man vanished, cops say. Now SC man charged with murder

A South Carolina man has been charged with murder in the death of a North Carolina resident who deputies say went missing two years ago.

The Rutherford County Sheriff’s office asked the public in March 2023 for help locating Phillip Cullen Burr. A family member said Burr, of Ellenboro, North Carolina, had not been seen since November 2021.

“We believe that Phillip wasn’t reported missing any earlier due to not checking in with his family very often,” Detective Ryan Bailey of the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office told McClatchy News in an email. “Most of Phillip’s family lives in different states (some as far as Florida) and we believe that played a role in the delaying of him being reported missing.”

As the investigation got underway, authorities said, the missing person case became a homicide investigation. They identified 30-year-old Jacob Dewayne Hall, of Clover, South Carolina, as a suspect, according to the news release.

York County jail records show Hall was booked at the South Carolina detention center April 20, 2022 on unrelated charges and is currently being held there.

Clover, South Carolina is about 50 miles southeast of Ellenboro, North Carolina.

In May 2023, investigators with the York County Sheriff’s Office, the York County Coroner’s Office, Foothills Search and Rescue, and the University of South Carolina Anthropology Department executed a warrant on a property in South Carolina, according to the news release.

There, they say they found Burr’s remains.

A grand jury in Rutherford indicted Hall with first degree murder on Aug. 10, according to the release.

Bailey told McClatchy News it is still unclear if Hall and Burr knew each other. The motive is under investigation.

This story was originally published August 15, 2023 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Remains found two years after man vanished, cops say. Now SC man charged with murder."