GAFFNEY

Suspect charged with murder after woman found buried in cornfieldFree Access


Investigators with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office have obtained a murder warrant on a Gaffney man being held in Alabama in connection with a homicide. 

Dionicia Nava Abaraca, 42, is being held in Baldwin County, Ala., after his arrest Sunday.

Sheriff’s deputies discovered a partially buried body in a cornfield on Concord Heights Sunday, July 19 around 2 p.m. while searching for a woman who had been reported missing by her children. 

On Tuesday, Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler identified the victim as Alisia Campos Garcia, 37, of 3228 Chesnee Highway. The coroner said an autopsy confirmed Garcia’s death as a homicide. 

The victim’s children reported their mother and father left the home on Chesnee Highway around 2 p.m. Saturday, July 18 and had not returned home, according to a release by Sheriff Steve Mueller. The children also reported the parents were arguing and they witnessed the father strangle their mother during a dispute not long before leaving the home. 

The children were able to give deputies a location of a rental property and garden spot they believed the parents were to visit Saturday. 

Deputies arrived at the rental property on Small Farm Road and located a pickup truck the parents left in Saturday but no one was at the home or residence, Mueller said. 

When the deputies arrived at the garden on Concord Heights around 1:30 p.m. they observed fresh tire tracks leading out to a garden in a field. 

“Officers began to walk the field in an attempt to locate the missing parents when they observed a body around 2 p.m. that had been partially covered/buried in between the rows of corn,” Mueller said.

Crime scene officers and investigators, along with the coroner, were then called to the scene.

Family members informed investigators Abaraca had been arrested in Baldwin County, Ala., around 5:45 a.m. Sunday. 

DIONICIA ABARCA

Dionicia Nava Abaraca

According to the release by Mueller, Abarca was picked up by a 17-year-old nephew at the property on Small Farm Road and was told to drive down Interstate 85. 

Abarca was arrested for unlawful imprisonment 2nd degree as the nephew feared for his safety and was treated when he wanted to let his uncle out of the vehicle, the release stated. 

At the time of Abarca’s arrest, the juvenile told Alabama law enforcement his uncle was acting strange and he was scared he had done something bad because of the way he was acting. 

Investigators with the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office traveled to Alabama on July 21 to interview Abarca. 

A murder warrant has been obtained on Abarca and investigators are working with Alabama law enforcement to extradite him to South Carolina. 

Abarca also has a hold on him for immigration violations, Mueller said. 

Anyone with information about the homicide investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIMESC or 1-888-274-6372 or contact Captain Parnell at the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office at 864-489-4722, ext. 117.

 

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