Local Radar

A tragic week
web posted February 23, 2006
A column by the Editor

COLUMN – A question I have been asked, and in fact have asked myself, is what is going on this week? Let’s face it; Edgefield County is a large, mostly rural, interconnected county. A single “major” news event may happen about once or twice a year. However, for some unknown reason, this week we saw an onslaught of tragedies.

On Monday came the grisly discovery of the murder of Gwendolyn Wilson in the home she shared with her two young sons and their stepfather, Maurice Wilson. Evidence led the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office to name Mr. Wilson as the suspect in the murder. He surrendered to Laurens County authorities Monday night. The murder took place Sunday night and Mr. Wilson is reported to have cut the phone lines so the children could not call for help left them for the next 16 hours weeping over the body of their mother.

Mr. Wilson left the scene on foot and garnered a ride a short time later reports say.

Hours later, another man took his own life at his place of business. Unrelated to the murder, the discovery of two bodies within hours is rare in Edgefield County. A strain that was managed well with the limited number of investigators and personnel provided for the Sheriff by the County Council.

Unknown to most, just hours later yet another report of a man with a gun was reported to the Sheriff’s Office.

Then Tuesday came with accused murderer Maurice Wilson committing suicide by using his Detention Center issued jumpsuit fashioned as a noose to hang himself at the county jail. The only problem with the sequence of events involving Mr. Wilson, in my personal opinion, is the order in which he committed his crimes. I know that may sound cold, but had he committed the last one first it would have just been a sad situation, not such a devastatingly tragic one. The two children, one who witnessed the murder, will carry that night with them for the rest of their lives.

There is an old saying, bad things happen in threes.  Let’s hope that is true.
 

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