Three charged in missing woman’s murder

COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Two men and a woman have been charged in the death of a missing Leland woman whose body was discovered in Columbus County on Wednesday.

Deputies say Nathan Elisha Tyler Jr., 42,  Kayla Leigh-Anne Turner, 18, and Michael Jesse Williams, 31, are facing charges including murder, robbery and kidnapping. Turner and Williams are still in jail under no bond after a court appearance this morning. Tyler is currently in jail in Horry County awaiting extradition.

Yesterday, Columbus County Sheriff Lewis Hatcher and Brunswick County Sheriff John Ingram announced Deans’s body had been found in Columbus County woods Wednesday morning. Deans was last seen April 28. Deputies say Deans was robbed of $34 by the three suspects who then took her from Tyler’s residence to a wooded area in the 800 block of John Coleman Road where she was murdered. No cause of death was announced, but deputies believe a handgun was used in the killing. Deans’ vehicle was found burned near Clarendon Baptist Church on Thursday.

Deans’s family said they believe she had been on her way to see Nathan Elisha Tyler, III, who was in his early 20s, in Whiteville the day she disappeared. He has been in the Columbus County Jail since May 6 for a probation violation charge. Officials say he is not connected to the crime at this time.

Nathan Elisha Tyler Jr. is currently in jail in Horry County after officials say he crashed a stolen patrol car from Columbus County. Tyler has an extensive criminal history including felony breaking and entering and common law robbery convictions in Columbus County. He was also convicted in 2011 in Lincoln County in a prison escape investigation.

Public records show Turner has only one misdemeanor conviction in the state from 2014. Williams has no convictions listed in the state, but has an arrest record in Lee County, Florida, from June of 2014.