An “armed and dangerous” South Carolina man linked to at least four murders in two states was arrested Monday after a weeklong manhunt, authorities said.
Tyler Terry, 26, was taken into custody at around 10 a.m. in South Carolina’s Chester County after fleeing from authorities during a May 17 traffic stop and prompting a massive search that came to involve 300 officers. Authorities say Terry and his already-imprisoned accomplice, Adrienne Simpson, 34, have been linked to several crimes, including two murders and shootings in South Carolina, and two murders and an attempted murder in Missouri.
The May shootings also occurred after a series of robberies in a crime spree that prompted Missouri officers to call the pair “a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.”
“Tyler Terry is in custody. No shots were fired by any party. Everyone (including Terry) is safe,” the sheriff’s office said in a Monday tweet.
Terry’s arrest ends a weeks-long saga for the 26-year-old and Simpson. Authorities say the spree began on May 2, when Terry allegedly killed 35-year-old Thomas Hardin in his York, South Carolina, home. According to a York Police report, Hardin was found on the floor between a couch and a door—though his exact cause of death has not yet been released.
Authorities charged Terry with Hardin’s murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime—Simpson was charged with accessory to murder after she allegedly drove the getaway car that night. Hardin’s friend Chimere Hicks told WIS-TV that Hardin and Terry were once romantically involved.
“He had put Tyler out of his house months ago. He was giving him a place to stay because he didn’t have anywhere to live. And it just wasn’t working out and so he put him out. [Terry] would always send [Hardin] threatening messages, calling him names, just doing a lot of things to him,” Hicks said. “I just kept telling Thomas it’s not safe. You know you come home at night. But he always said, ‘No, I’m not scared of him.’”
Police say that about two hours after finding Hardin dead, they responded to another emergency call nearby, where they believe Terry shot at two people inside a home. One person was injured during the shootout and transported to a local hospital. About half an hour later, at 11:20 p.m., police believe Terry opened fire at a Taco Bell on J.A. Cochran Bypass and hit one person. Simpson allegedly drove Terry around during his spree.
The pair are also both suspects in the May 15 murders of Barbara Goodkin and Dr. Sergei Zacharev near St. Louis, who were both fatally shot in separate incidents an hour apart. Brentwood Police Department Joseph Spiess Jr. said during a May 20 press conference that both crimes were robberies that turned into murders.
“We cannot find a tie to either one of these people to St. Louis. From now what it appears, this modern-day version of Bonnie and Clyde do several violent crimes in South Carolina, then travel across the country,” Spiess said. “What they did between South Carolina and Missouri, we do not know.”
Spiess added that the silver SUV the pair was driving and ballistics used in all the crimes have led authorities to believe the pair is linked to the spree.
On May 17, Chester County deputies finally caught up to Terry and Simpson, resulting in a high-speed chase in which Terry allegedly shot at three law enforcers who tried to pull the pair over. While nobody was hurt during the violent incident that ended in a car crash on Highway 9, only Simpson was successfully apprehended, while her partner escaped into the woods.
On Friday, the pair were also charged with murder after South Carolina Law Enforcement Division found Simpson’s 33-year-old husband, Eugene, fatally shot in a Chester County ditch. Eugene Simpson had been reported missing since May 2, and his death is being investigated as a homicide.
Chester County Sheriff Max Dorsey said Monday that after almost a week of scouring the area for Terry, investigators caught “the break we were looking for” when he was spotted running across Highway 9. Hundreds of officers were then able to set up a perimeter around the patch of woods where Terry was believed to be hiding. Dorsey said officers found Terry lying on the ground with a weapon on Monday morning.
Simpson’s mother, Carol DeWitt, told WBTV that Terry has been physically and mentally abusive toward her daughter since the pair began to date in 2018. DeWitt, who spoke to her daughter in Chester County Jail last week, said that Simpson said that “she was manipulated.”
“She told me she’s scared of Tyler. She told me that a couple of times,” DeWitt told the outlet. “I said, ‘Why do you keep going back?’ She said, ‘Mama, I love him. He might change if I just hang in there.’ I said, ‘Adrienne, it ain’t worth it.”