Arrest made in 2015 shooting death of South Carolina man found in a charred basement

Five years after a Greenville man was found shot to death inside his charred house, a suspect has been arrested in his killing.

Jason Travis Merrill, 45, was arrested at his mother’s home in Brevard, N.C., Friday and charged with murder, arson, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and financial credit card fraud, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said Tuesay.

Cecil Sanders “Sandy” Morris, 57, was found dead of a gunshot wound in his home on Michael Drive in the western part of Greenville County on Oct. 30, 2015. The body was in the basement in the beginning stages of decomposition.

His car was missing.

Merrill and Morris were roommates, the sheriff said.

Officers were told by friends and neighbors that Morris was afraid of his roommate. But in 2015, officers lacked enough forensic evidence to get a search warrant, Lewis said.

Lewis said when he took office earlier this year he reorganized the cold case unit, and they began sifting through more than 100 cold cases on the Sheriff’s Office books.

“I thought it could be solved,” Lewis said at a press conference Tuesday.

Investigators discovered Merrill had traveled to California in mid-October 2015 and returned to his mother’s house in Brevard at the end of the month. He had been charged in California with financial credit card fraud.

Morris’ credit card had been used to make thousands of dollars of purchases.

Lewis said investigators believe Morris had been killed in mid-October and his home set on fire on Oct. 30, 2015.

Merrill is awaiting extradition from a county jail in Brevard, Lewis said.

This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 4:39 PM.