Inset left: Megan Bodiford (GoFundMe). Inset right: Jarrett Davis (Bamberg County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The location where the burned car containing Bodiford’s remains was found (WIS/YouTube).
In a harrowing case from South Carolina, a man has confessed to the murder of his girlfriend, followed by a grisly attempt to conceal the crime by setting a car on fire with her body inside, as per court documents.
Jarrett Haskell Davis, aged 28, accepted his guilt on Monday for charges including murder, illegal possession of a weapon during a violent act, third-degree arson, and desecration of human remains. Consequently, he was handed a 43-year prison sentence for the murder, along with additional penalties for his other crimes, according to online court records accessed by Law&Crime.
The victim, Megan Bodiford, who was 25 years old, vanished on or around April 25 from Denmark, South Carolina, a town located roughly 60 miles south of Columbia. Before her disappearance, Bodiford sent a foreboding message to a friend. “If you don’t hear from me in 30 minutes, he killed me,” she texted, as reported by FITSNews.
She added a chilling detail: “He has a gun.”
At the time, Bodiford was the mother of a 4-month-old infant and was embroiled in domestic turmoil with Davis, according to her friends and family. “She reached out for help,” recounted Bodiford’s cousin, Stephanie Nickens, during an interview with local NBC and CW affiliate WIS following Davis’s arrest.
The tragic discovery came when authorities from the Bamberg County Sheriff’s Office uncovered a charred vehicle containing human remains, later confirmed to be Bodiford’s, approximately two miles from her residence. This grim find led to Davis’s apprehension.
“It’s gut-wrenching because he did not have to do all of that at all,” Nickens told the station about the way Bodiford was found and her last plea for help. “I keep having this thought in my mind of how fearful she was in that moment,” the cousin said.
Bodiford’s family told WIS after Davis’ arrest that they were upset with cops because Davis had a domestic violence arrest warrant at the time.
“If he would have been locked up the way that he was supposed to be the first time, maybe he wouldn’t have even gotten a chance to get this far with her,” Nickens said.
Bodiford was a mother to three daughters, ages 7, 4 and 4 months, according to a GoFundMe page.
“I want everyone to focus on what a beautiful soul she had, just a wonderful mother that she was,” Nickens told WIS. “She loved being around people. If you look on her social media, you see so many friends coming together and posting memories that they have of them with her.”
