FATAL BURIAL

Heart Attack Kills Man Burying Woman He’d Strangled in His Yard

The man had dug a pit before strangling the woman but died while trying to cover the pit after placing her body in it.

Deputies with the Edgefield County Sheriff’s office in South Carolina responding to a call “of an unresponsive man lying in his yard” found that man dead, with no signs of trauma, but also the body of a woman in a freshly dug pit who “appeared to have died of foul play,” according to a joint statement from the county sheriff and the county coroner. Subsequent autopsies confirmed those observations, with 60-year-old Joseph Anthony McKinnon found to have died is his own yard following “a cardiac arrest” while 65-year-old Patricia Ruth Dent was a victim of strangulation. “Evidence gathered at the scene, along with statements from witnesses aided investigators to build a timeline, leading us to believe that Mr. McKinnon attacked Ms. Dent while inside their home,” the officials wrote. "Mr. McKinnon then bound her and wrapped her in trash bags before putting her in the previously dug pit. The pit was then partially filled in by Mr. McKinnon. While covering the pit, Mr. McKinnon had the cardiac event, causing his death.”