Man whose girlfriend's body was found in his well avoids a murder charge

An Anderson County man whose dead girlfriend's body was found in a well on his land avoided a murder charge Friday and instead pleaded no contest to accusations that he desecrated or removed human remains.

The body of 57-year-old Patricia Ann Freeman was found in a well on Perry Pruitt's property on Boseman Road just east of Broadway Lake in February 2015, after her family reported her missing her that month. Freeman's brother reported her missing and told Anderson County Sheriff's Office investigators he had not seen her for several months.

Pruitt was charged with murder several months after Freeman's body was discovered, after an examiner ruled her death a homicide. But that ruling came into question recently as prosecutors began to prepare for Pruitt's trial.

Anderson County pathologist Dr. Brett Woodard conducted an autopsy on Freeman's body in February 2015 and waited until toxicology results were available to issue his report, according to a statement Friday from the 10th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office.

In a report dated Aug. 18, 2015, a toxicologist for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division found no drugs or poisons of concern, after testing muscle tissue from Freeman, according to the solicitor's office. At the time, Woodard determined that the Freeman died of a broken neck and said the cause of death was homicide.

As prosecutors prepared for Pruitt's trial, they sent additional tissue samples collected from Freeman to SLED for more toxicology testing. In a report dated Aug. 17, SLED toxicologists said they had "found cocaine and its metabolite" in tissues from Freeman's brain and liver, according to the solicitor's office.

Woodard amended his original findings and ruled Freeman's cause and manner of death as "undetermined," according to the solicitor's office. Because of that finding, the solicitor's office dropped the murder charge against Pruitt. The only charge remaining was that he had moved or desecrated Freeman's remains.

Judge Lawton McIntosh sentenced Pruitt to 10 years in prison, suspended to four years of active jail time and four years probation. Pruitt will get credit for 728 days he has already served behind bars.

Freeman was last seen alive on bank surveillance footage Sept. 8, 2014, going into TD Bank on South Main Street in Anderson, according to the Sheriff's Office. She had apparently moved out of her home the week before and had gone to be with Pruitt, an investigator said in a previous hearing.

In a previous court proceeding, Pruitt's lawyer, William Epps III, argued that finding Freeman's body in the well did not prove that Pruitt killed her. Epps said, and investigators confirmed, that Freeman was a prostitute and used crack cocaine.

When investigators went to check with Pruitt regarding Freeman, they were flagged down by neighbors who said their water tasted funny and Pruitt had cut the cord to their cable after they confronted him about it, officers previously said.

The taste was likely caused by mothballs and bleach in the water, investigators said.

But the foul taste, and bones that were later determined to be dog or cat bones, led to a search warrant that led investigators to the well and the body.

A key to the well house was found in Pruitt’s kitchen, according to investigators, and Pruitt had stockpiled bottled water.

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