RICHLAND COUNTY, SC — Two days into the New Year, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department already is investigating two violent deaths.

Wednesday, sheriff’s investigators arrested a man on murder charges after he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death, stuffed her body inside a Rubbermaid container and then drove to a McDonald’s to call police, the Sheriff’s Department reported.

Faasiu Toese, 26, was charged with murder in the stabbing death, said Richland County Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Curtis Wilson. He was in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on Wednesday awaiting a bond hearing, which must be held before a circuit court judge.

Deputies responded to a call just before 3 a.m. at 7011 Parklane Road where they found Toese standing in the McDonald’s parking lot next to a 2000 Mitsubishi Montero, according to a Sheriff’s Department news release. He allegedly told deputies about a woman’s body in the back seat, the release said.

Officers found the body of his 25-year-old girlfriend inside the container, Wilson said. She had multiple stab wounds.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts had not released the victim’s name late Wednesday, pending notification of family. But the Sheriff’s Department reported that Toese was the victim’s live-in boyfriend.

The Sheriff’s Department first received a 911 call of a possible suicide, Wilson said. The couple lived at a home on the 200 block of Ferrell Drive, in a neighborhood off Two Notch Road and about three miles from the McDonald’s.

Investigators determining where the stabbing occurred. And they were not sure why Toese drove to the McDonald’s before calling police.

Wilson said sheriff’s deputies had responded to a domestic violence call at the home once in the past, but he did not have details of that incident.

As for the New Year’s Day shooting, Watts identified the victim as Roderick Day, 23, of Powell Road. Day died of complications from a gunshot wound to the upper body, Watts said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived at Day’s home around 4 p.m. Tuesday to find Day’s girlfriend performing CPR on him, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Department.

The girlfriend, who has not been identified, had shot Day, Wilson said.

The shooting originally was reported as a domestic dispute, but the Sheriff’s Department has backed off that description of the shooting.

Investigators are trying to find out what happened before the shooting and the circumstances around it, Wilson said. Once the investigation is finished, the investigators will determine whether the shooting was an accident or whether criminal charges should be filed, the release said.

Reach Phillips at (803) 771-8307.