Update: Convicted arsonist charged in death of woman found in burning Richland home

A man previously convicted of arson will be charged with murder in the death of a woman whose body was found in a burning Richland County home Tuesday.

Kenneth Gleaton, 38, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at Columbia Canal and Riverfront Park, behind EdVenture Children’s Museum, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. He will be charged with murder in the death of 39-year-old Amanda Peele.

Peele’s body was found Tuesday morning in a burning home on the 100 block of Crestmore Drive, officials said.

The Columbia Fire Department responded to the blaze around 1:15 a.m. Tuesday. Sheriff’s investigators were called to the home by the Richland County Fire Marshal’s Office because the fire seemed suspicious,

After extinguishing the blaze, a woman’s body was located in the debris, Lott said. Richland County Coroner Gary Watts identified the victim as Peele and ruled her death a homicide. He declined to release Peele’s cause of death but said she was dead before the fire was set.

Investigators determined that Gleaton, a former acquaintance of Peele, is responsible for the crime.

Gleaton was arrested on a charge of second-degree arson in September 1996 in Orangeburg County, according to State Law Enforcement Division records. He was convicted and sentenced under the state’s Youthful Offender Act.

He was arrested on another arson charge with the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office in March 1998, but that charge was later dismissed, according to SLED records.

Gleaton also has convictions for first-degree criminal domestic violence in February 1998 and criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature in September 2000, according to SLED.

This story was originally published October 10, 2017 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Update: Convicted arsonist charged in death of woman found in burning Richland home."