2 unrelated murders happened years apart in the same SC home. They were just solved, cops say

Lyn Riddle
·2 min read

Arrests have been made in two of Greenville County 95 cold cases, Sheriff Hobart Lewis announced Friday.

The deaths were unrelated but occurred at the same Pelzer address.

Family members found Charity Southerland, 21, shot to death in the bedroom of her home on April 2, 2022. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds, the coroner’s office said.

Lewis said investigators believed they had a suspect early on but did not have the evidence to bring charges. A month ago, investigators say they received DNA evidence and witness statements to tie the suspect to the crime.

Arrested in Rome, Georgia, was Charles Russel Reams, 22. He is in jail there, facing charges for an unrelated assault. Reams was charged in Greenville County with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.

Lewis called it a domestic dispute.

Last year, Southerland’s family held a vigil for her to bring attention to the unsolved case.

“Charity was, she was just such a good person. Everybody she encountered with loved her person, character, she was just a loveable kind of a person, a likable kind of person,” her father, Linnie Southerland, said at the time.

The family had offered a $2,000 reward for information.

Lewis said an arrest had been made in a “drug deal gone bad.” Zachery Whitley and three others were shot on April 17, 2016. Whitley died and the others survived.

Wesley Nix, 34, was arrested at his workplace on Wade Hampton Boulevard, Lewis said, and two suspects remain at large.

Nix is facing the following charges, murder, attempted murder, two counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, attempted robbery, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and criminal conspiracy.

When Lewis was elected sheriff in 2020, he renewed the effort to solve the large number of cold cases. They have cleared 11 so far, he said Friday. Nine resulted in arrests.

He credited improved DNA technology and the tenacity of investigators for clearing the cases.