21-Year-Old SC Man Raped And Killed 89-Year-Old Woman On Easter, Police Say

Police arrested a 21-year-old Liberty, South Carolina man this week after an 89-year-old woman was found murdered in her home on Easter Sunday. 

Thomas James Chapman was charged with murder, criminal sexual assault, first-degree burglary, assault and battery, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and petit larceny, according to arrest warrants. 

Mary Alice Karr, 89, was found dead in her Pickens County Home on Sunday afternoon, WYFF reported. 

Chapman lived less than a half-mile away from Karr’s Mills Avenue home, where he entered through the back window sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning, the Associated Press reported. 

A Liberty Police Department official told the Associated Press that Chapman “raped and choked her until she was unconscious.”

Chapman then slashed her throat, and stole items valued at less than $2,000 according to the arrest warrants.

According to the arrest warrants, Chapman confessed to the charges. He was identified by police as a suspect as police were searching the neighborhood, WYFF reported. 

It is not yet known if Chapman had a previous criminal record beyond the traffic tickets listed in the Pickens County Public Index.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) assisted the Liberty Police Department in the investigation.

Liberty is a small town with a population of just over 3,000 located in South Carolina’s Upstate.

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