A teenager has been charged with killing an 87-year-old woman in northeast Richland County Thursday, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the 1100 block of Jake Eargle Road at about 10:45 a.m. Thursday and found the body of an elderly woman outside her home under a blanket, RCSD spokeswoman Veronica Hill said.
The victim’s name has not yet been released by the coroner’s office.
The circumstances of the killing aren’t totally clear, as authorities have yet to release much information, but initial reports indicate the woman may have been struck with something and suffered blunt force trauma to her upper body, Hill said.
Investigators quickly pieced together what happened and charged the 17-year-old male with murder, she said. The suspect and victim are not related and did not live at the same address, Hill said.
It’s not clear whether the juvenile, whose name was not released because of his age, knew the victim.