Bodies of 2 children recovered from car found in South Carolina river; mother arrested

Bodies of 2 children found in car in SC river

ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The bodies of two toddlers were recovered Monday from a car submerged in a South Carolina river and their mother was charged with leaving the scene, as authorities investigated whether it was an accident.

Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams said the young boys were recovered from the North Edisto River after the car was found near a rural boat landing.

County Coroner Samuetta Marshall identified the victims as 18-month-old Ja’van T. Duley and Devean C. Duley, 2, of Orangeburg. She said she would not speculate on a cause of death until autopsies were completed Tuesday.

The boys’ mother, whose name was not immediately released, was being held Monday on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident, Williams said.

He said the Highway Patrol was notified about 6:15 a.m. Monday that there had been an accident and a woman needed help getting her children out of the car. Divers were brought to the scene.

The children, who were found still strapped in their child seats, were dead when they were removed from the water about 45 minutes later, he said.

“Early in the investigation, the state patrol felt there was not enough indicators to substantiate that there was an automobile accident,” Williams said. “We are looking into all possibilities as to what happened.”

The woman, who did not have a cell phone, walked some distance down the country road by the boat landing and flagged down a passing motorist to call the Highway Patrol.

“She showed some emotion, but I can’t say she was overly distraught,” the sheriff said. “Through her statements, there are some things we think are not believable.”

Williams said the children’s father did not live with the family. The sheriff said authorities were attempting to contact him.

The boat ramp — littered with empty beer cases and discarded soda bottles — is about 20 yards upstream from a main road that crosses the slow-moving river and the sheriff said authorities were are investigating how it could have been a traffic accident. A mobile home, a house and mechanic’s shop are a short distance away.

Local residents said they were suspicious.

Shakeyia Baxter said the main road was heavily traveled in the mornings and would have been especially busy on Monday — the first day of school. Baxter stopped by the boat ramp on her way home from work at a McDonald’s to tuck silk flowers into a sign that warns of high levels of mercury in the fish.

“My heart goes out to them,” said Baxter, a 30-year-old mother of two. “I would have been doing everything I could to get those kids out of that car seat.”

Orangeburg is about 35 miles south of Columbia, the state capital.

The incident was reminiscent of the deaths of two other toddlers in South Carolina.

In 1994, in a case that made headlines worldwide, Susan Smith left her 3-year-old and 14-month-old sons strapped in their car seats as she rolled her car into a lake in Union County in the northwest part of the state.

She was convicted in their deaths and is serving a life prison term.

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Associated Press Writer Bruce Smith in Charleston contributed to this story.