South Carolina house collapsed and two New York women were killed, coroner says
Two women have died after a South Carolina house collapsed, according to the Berkeley County Coroner’s Office.
One of the victims, 65-year-old New York resident Sandra Tillman, died Sept. 25, the same day the house on Rufus Lane in Moncks Corner collapsed, Coroner Darnell Hartwell said.
The second victim and fellow New Yorker, 67-year-old Deborah Nelson, died Sunday in a Lowcountry hospital, the coroner’s office said Monday in a news release.
While Hartwell said that Tillman died at the Medical University of South Carolina Burn Center of injuries and complications from the house collapsing, the coroner’s office did not provide a specific cause of death for Nelson, other than saying she died as a result of the home collapsing.
Berkeley County EMS reported that they were involved in extricating two victims from “the residential structure (that) had completely collapsed,” and no other injuries were reported.
It was about 7:40 p.m. Sept. 25, that emergency officials learned about the collapsed home.
Information about a cause for the home’s destruction was not available, but emergency officials said they responded to a “possible explosion,” WCSC reported.
The fatal home collapse is being investigated by the coroner’s office, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the South Carolina Fire Marshal. Officials did not say if foul play was suspected.
A funeral was held Oct. 10 in Brooklyn for Tillman, a retired New York Police Department detective, according to Sampson Funeral Service. Funeral arrangements for Nelson were not available.
Tillman’s family said the women, who were cousins, were part of a group on vacation in South Carolina, WCIV reported.
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