Crime & Safety
Taylors Woman Was Shot To Death Before Fire
Greenville County Coroner's Office said Wednesday that the 63-year-old woman found dead inside a home after a fire was already dead before her home went up in flames.
Investigators confirmed on Wednesday that Alice Barber Owenby, the 63-year-old woman found dead Tuesday morning after a fire at a Taylors residence, did not die in the fire.
Lt. Tim Ridgeway of the Greenville County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Deputy Coroner Barry Wright advised investigators that Owenby had been shot multiple times in the head before the blaze was set.
The case is now officially being investigated as a homicide.
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Owenby lived at 301 McConnell Road in Taylors, which was the scene of a house fire at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. Though firefighters initially thought the home was unoccupied, by 9 a.m., arson investigators with the Greenville County Sheriff's Office had arrived and discovered Owenby's body buried beneath several feet of charred rubble.
The roof and interior walls of the home had collapsed around her, Wright said. She was found face down in the bathroom. A vehicle registered to 301 McConnell Road was found Tuesday morning, abandoned some 20 minutes away in Tigerville.
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Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office or Crime Stoppers at 23-CRIME.
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