A South Carolina man fatally shot two people and buried their bodies in his backyard after refusing to pay his cab fare, police suspect.
James Edward Loftis, 39, was arrested Sunday and charged with two counts of murder after his wife went to police, saying her husband admitted to killing two people and was suicidal, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Huffington Post.
The Goose Creek man allegedly confessed to officers, saying he hired a cab to drive him home from a strip club early Saturday morning while his wife was out of town. When he didn’t pay, the driver and another man knocked on his door and then forced their way inside.
Loftis said the men threatened him and after telling them, “I’ll get your money,” he returned with a .45-caliber handgun and fired at them eight times, killing them, according to the affidavit.
He allegedly then drove the cab to a nearby road and abandoned it.
Before returning home, Loftis said, he walked to a gas station less than a mile away and purchased 5 gallons of gasoline. Once home, he cleaned the house with bleach and then placed his clothes and the bodies in a hole outside and lit them on fire.
Authorities have yet to publicly identify the two men killed. The Berkeley County Coroner’s Office said the bodies were found in a shallow grave.
Some family members of the victims addressed Loftis during a hearing on Sunday, during which he was charged and ordered held without bond.
"I just want to say, I forgive you and I suggest that you tell your other cohorts, because I know that it wasn't just you,” the daughter of one of the men killed told him, according to WCSC.
Goose Creek Assistant Police Chief Maj. John Grainger told The Washington Post that the investigation is ongoing and investigators are following “new and existing leads.”
