North Carolina man accused of sexually assaulting woman he met at North Myrtle Beach bar

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A North Carolina man is facing kidnapping and sexual assault charges in Horry County after allegedly attacking a woman he met Saturday night at a bar in North Myrtle Beach.

Douglas Horace Steadman Jr., 49, of Lexington, North Carolina, was booked into the J. Reuben Long Detention Center after his arrest on Sunday. He is being held without bond.

Arrest warrants in the case claim that Steadman forced the woman to commit sexual acts three times during a span of about 20 to 25 minutes after meeting her at the Sky Bar on Main Street. The woman “could not breathe and believes that she may have blacked out while she was being held down against her will,” the warrants state.

When officers arrived at the bar at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, they saw a crowd that was “shielding and holding a white female wrapped in a towel,” according to a police report. The woman “appeared to be extremely emotional and stated that she had just been sexually assaulted.”

While being taken to the hospital, she gave authorities a description of her attacker and said she was missing several personal items, including clothing, shoes, a cellphone, a debit card and her driver’s license, the report said.

At the hospital, the report said the woman told authorities that she had been drinking alone at the bar when the man whom she had never met joined her on the dance floor. He told her that she was too drunk and that the business was going to kick her out and then took her down some stairs and assaulted her.

He then left the area but returned a short time later and sexually assaulted her again, the report said. After leaving a second time, the report said he came back and attacked her again.

That’s when she said he told her “that someone else wanted ‘a piece of her.'” She told authorities, however, that she did not see or hear anyone else in the area.

“She repeatedly told the male that she did not want to have sex by saying ‘no’ multiple times, the report said. “He then proceeded to fight her, in which he placed his hands covering her mouth and nose. She was unable to get away from him. She stated that it was hard for her to breathe, and she may have blacked out at some point during the assault.”

After he left for the final time, the woman said she crawled away “to a place where people could see her to help,” the report said.

During the investigation, the report said officers identified Steadman as the suspect using surveillance video that showed him with the victim on the bar’s dance floor and later “holding and escorting” her out of the business.

After his arrest, Steadman acknowledged being at the bar and dancing with the woman but denied sexually assaulting her, the report said. At one point, he said the woman fell off a barstool and had to be picked up by security officers who planned to “kick her out of the business.”

That’s when he said he told the security officers that he would “escort her down the stairs” and call a taxi to pick her up, the report said. While outside in the parking lot, Steadman said he was involved in a confrontation with two men who then left the area.

Police interviewed another man at the bar with Steadman, the report said. That person told officers that there was a 20- to 25-minute time span in which he did not know where Steadman was and that he had tried to call him but did not get an answer.

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Dennis Bright is a Digital Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.

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