Dead woman and man found at pet food plant in South Carolina are identified by coroner

Two bodies were found at a Midlands business Monday following a shooting, according to the Saluda County Sheriff’s Office.

An investigation determined the deadly shootings were a murder-suicide, the sheriff’s office and Saluda County Coroner’s Office said in a joint news release.

At about 5:45 p.m., deputies responded to report of a shooting at Valley Protein, according to the sheriff’s office. That’s in the Ward area, between Interstate 20 and U.S. 25.

The facility is used to render meat byproducts for the pet food industry, Pet Food Processing previously reported.

Deputies found both a dead woman and man at the facility, the sheriff’s office said.

Kimberly Waters Leon, a 52-year-old Graniteville resident, and Willie James Hopkins Jr., a 44-year-old Batesburg resident, were the woman and man who died, according to the coroner’s office.

Autopsies showed that Leon was shot multiple times by Hopkins before he turned the gun on himself, according to the release. The two had been involved in a relationship prior to the shooting, the sheriff’s office said.

No other injuries were reported in what the sheriff’s office called an “isolated incident.”

“There are no threats to the public,” the sheriff’s office said in the release.

There was no word on a motive for the shooting.

Both deputies and members of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s Crime Scene Unit processed the crime scene. The shooting continues to be investigated by the sheriff’s office, the coroner’s office and SLED.

This story was originally published April 1, 2025 at 7:54 AM.

Noah Feit

The State

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Noah Feit is a Real Time reporter with The State focused on breaking news, public safety and trending news. The award-winning journalist has worked for multiple newspapers since starting his career in 1999. Support my work with a digital subscription