BENNETTSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – The state has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against the man charged with kidnapping and killing a Bennettsville 8-year-old girl and her mother.
Jejauncey Harrington, 32, of Bennettsville, has been charged in the murders of Ella Lowery, of Bennettsville, and her 8-year-old daughter, Iyana Lowery.
According to the arrest warrant, Harrington robbed his murder victim, Ella Lowery, after stabbing her multiple times. Law enforcement agents obtained video footage from New Bridge Road in McColl that places Harrington near an abandoned home where “personal belongings of Ella Lowery were found after the murder.”
The warrant also details how Harrington killed the young girl after kidnapping her from her home. Harrington placed Iyana Lowery’s body in a remote pool of water off New Bridge Road in McColl, where she was discovered. Harrington “transported [Iyana] in a 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse,” where Iyana’s DNA was found in the trunk of the car, the warrant reports.
The homeowner says it’s painful being surrounded by locations where deputies discovered evidence in a murder case and 8-year-old Iyana Lowery’s body.
“You can’t look at the house the same anymore, knowing what happened. Can’t look at that bridge, knowing what happened. Now I have to live across the street from it,” says the resident.
While the sheriff’s office says Facebook messages, phone records, and witnesses confirm a relationship existed between Harrington and Ella Lowery, no motive for the two murders has been released.
