A strange twist of fate…
An American man is believed to have died suddenly of a heart attack whilst digging a grave for a woman that he allegedly murdered – with police claiming that the victim was the man’s girlfriend.
According to police and media reports, 60-year-old Joseph Anthony McKinnon was discovered laying unresponsive in the garden of his Trenton home after deputies from Edgefield County – a spot around 20 miles north of Augusta, South Carolina – were called on May 7 to investigate reports “of an unresponsive male lying in his yard.”
Upon arrival, authorities and medical crews discovered McKinnon’s body outside of his residence – but that’s not all they found.
After further investigation, police reportedly discovered an additional body in a “freshly dug pit,” as Sheriff Jody Rowland explained to local media outlets.
The body was soon identified as 65-year-old Patricia Dent, with investigators believing that McKinnon attacked Dent in the home that they shared, with an autopsy later revealing that she had died of strangulation, as per the New York Times.
“Mr. McKinnon then bound her and wrapped her in trash bags before putting her in the previously dug pit,” explained Sheriff Rowland in a statement.
It is believed that McKinnon suffered a “cardiac event” whilst attempting to cover the pit that he had dug for Dent – and while medial experts attempted to revive him after reaching his body – he was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene.
Regional news outlet Fox Carolina spoke to Dent’s twin sister Pamela Briggs who discussed her surprise surrounding this sad and unusual incident.
“I’m shocked. I didn’t see any of that coming,” she told the publication. “Everybody who ever met her liked her. She was just full of energy. She was 65 and working.”
Briggs continued, explaining how she learned about the event when Dent failed to show up for work and her employers “wanted to know if I knew where my sister was, and I said ‘no I have no idea’, and then it just started to play out from there.
“I would say a nightmare, and I want to wake up, and it’s a dream. I know it’s not,” she added. “This is reality and life, and a big part of me is gone, and now I’m going to have to live with that.”
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