DNA testing identifies missing South Carolina man buried in shallow grave
A body found buried in the woods east of Aiken, South Carolina, was identified as a missing Graniteville man, authorities say.
In a statement released Saturday, Aiken County Coroner Daryl Ables said that the decomposed remains belonged to 39-year-old John T. Belote of Graniteville, who was reported missing by his daughter on June 30. He was identified through DNA testing.
Belote’s body was discovered on July 14, buried in the woods on the 300 block of Wendy Lane near Windsor, S.C., roughly 15 miles east of Aiken. Ables said that Belote died from multiple gunshots wounds.
Local TV station WRDW reported that Belote’s daughter, Cierra, said that the last time she spoke to her father, he told her he got into an argument with his ex-girlfriend’s father, Donald Britton. Belote allegedly told other friends and family members he was going to Windsor to see his ex-girlfriend or Britton.
That was the last time Cierra Belote saw her father, according to WRDW.
On July 19, the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office arrested and charged Britton and two others —Thomas Guinn and Cody Wooten — with the destruction, desecration or removal of human remains. WRDW reported that warrants for three men indicated that Belote’s remains had been torn in two while being moved from an unmarked shallow grave at 916 Windsor Road to a similar grave at 379 Wendy Lane.
On Friday, Wooten and Britton were also charged with accessory to murder, according to records from the Aiken County Detention Center.
“My father had the biggest heart. And the biggest smile to match it. He cared so deeply about his family. I cannot even fathom the unimaginable things he went though in the last few moments of his life,” Cierra Belote wrote on a GoFundMe page. “No one deserves the things he endured at his end, but he had a HUGE impact on every single person he came across.”