SC man arrested in death of missing woman whose body was found in the woods

An Anderson man has been arrested in the death of a Fountain Inn woman who was reported missing on Dec. 10 by family members.

Billie Jean Cross’s body was found Tuesday in Starr, 40 miles away from her home. She was 58 years old.

The Laurens County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday they identified a suspect earlier this week, and he was taken into custody on unrelated fraud charges by the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.

They identified the suspect as Timothy Paul Spencer of Anderson.

“He has been charged with the murder of Billie Jean Cross and more charges are pending,” the news release said.

They said in the release that was all the information they could release at this time because the investigation is underway.

Cross, who was suffering from arthritis and used a walker, was found wrapped in a pink blanket. Her body was discovered by a man and his son who were looking at property they were buying on Cummings Springs Road in Anderson County.

Kelly Sanders, a cousin of Cross, said Friday that Cross was expecting someone on Dec. 10, the day she went missing, to repair her heater.

Another neighbor saw a black van in Cross’s driveway that morning but didn’t think anything of it because they knew someone was coming to repair her heater.

Cross grew up in Greenville County, went to Mauldin High School and earned a degree in English and Spanish from Clemson University in 1985. She served four years in the U.S. Army at Fort Meade in Maryland as an electronic warfare signals intelligence analyst before working a number of office jobs in Greenville and Spartanburg counties.

She married Larry Wayne Cross, a systems analyst and avid parachutist, in 1998. They lived in his hometown in Nova Scotia for a few years before he died in 2015.

Cross came back to Greenville and earned paralegal certification at Greenville Technical College and worked in a law office for a few months.

Her mother, Barbara McCoy, was the last person to talk with her on the morning she went missing, Sanders said.

Peggy Chambers, Sanders’ mother and cousin of Cross, said, “She was very sweet, kind and loved her mom.”

Cross also loved cats and dogs and did lots of crafts, Chambers said.

“We’re going to miss her terribly,” she said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to remove some details that were provided by a family member.

This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 10:24 AM.