Man says he killed girlfriend but will surrender — as soon as he smokes crack, SC cops say
Over the course of two weeks at one house near Spartanburg, South Carolina, there was a stabbing and a killing, and then a suspicious fire gutted the home, according to WSPA.
Spartanburg sheriff’s deputies arrested William Tommie Smith, 63, after he called 911 Sunday morning and told a dispatcher he had killed his girlfriend, Brenda Kay Tanner, 55, at the house in Inman, South Carolina, the station reports.
“Right around 8 o’clock, we got a call from a guy that just said he’d killed his girlfriend. He called our dispatch (and said) that he would turn himself in at 9:30. He said he was going to go smoke crack first, so he pretty much did just that,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told WYFF.
Police say the suspect beat the woman to death with a baseball bat, WYFF reports.
At 9 p.m. that same day, the call came in about the fire, WYFF reports. The fire destroyed the home, according to WYFF. Six fire departments from around the county were called to the scene to help control the blaze, the station said.
Investigators consider the fire suspicious, according to Fox Carolina. The station reports that power had been cut to the house earlier in the day.
The killing and fire followed a stabbing at the same address on Nov. 20, WSPA reports.
The sheriff’s office told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal that Bradley Earl Bell, 36, stabbed a man multiple times with a pair of scissors. Bell was the slaying victim’s son.
Bell was charged with attempted murder after he was taken in for questioning, and police said they found bloodied scissors in his pocket, the newspaper reported.
There’s no word if the stabbing and killing were connected and, multiple local outlets report, no indication on what started the fire.
This story was originally published December 3, 2018 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Man says he killed girlfriend but will surrender — as soon as he smokes crack, SC cops say."
