SC man accused of holding 4 people captive in his basement charged with murder

A Lancaster man was charged Friday with the killing of a 49-year-old woman he’d allegedly been holding hostage inside his home with three other adults, police said.

Donnie Ray Birchfield Jr., 35, is accused of killing Shirley Arnsdorff, of Lancaster, who was found dead on the floor of Birchfield’s Churchill Drive home on the morning of July 25, Lancaster Police Chief Don Roper said.

He was also charged with first-degree criminal sexual assault, although the details of that crime were not immediately released.

Birchfield, who is being held without bond at the Lancaster County Detention Center, has been in custody since Aug. 1, when police charged him with two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult in the immediate aftermath of Arnsdorff’s death.

Over the past 2½ months, Lancaster police obtained evidence that Birchfield had been holding Arnsdorff, her husband and two romantic partners hostage in his basement and subjecting them to horrific abuse, arrest warrants show.

While the warrants leave many questions unanswered, the details they do contain are highly disturbing.

Police allege Birchfield physically abused Arnsdorff and her husband — described in warrants as vulnerable adults for whom he was the sole caregiver — and denied them food, medical treatment and freedom of movement. He also gained access to the couple’s finances and used their money to make online purchases and payments on his personal credit cards, warrants state.

In addition to confining the couple, Birchfield also imprisoned and brutalized two female romantic partners, according to police.

The women, one who’d been involved with him for nearly a decade and the other for less than a year, were held captive in Birchfield’s basement and only permitted to leave with his permission and in his presence, warrants state.

Birchfield subjected the women to severe and persistent physical abuse, routinely choking them to the point of unconsciousness or near-unconsciousness, police allege. One of the women told police that during the assaults Birchfield would threaten to kill her and harm her family, and claimed he knew from past experience how to dispose of a body, according to an arrest warrant.

Police allege Birchfield also exerted extraordinary control over the women’s lives, dictating when they ate, when they used the bathroom and with whom they communicated. He often texted the women’s friends and family on their behalf and physically prevented them from calling anybody for help, warrants state.

Since Birchfield’s arrest on Aug. 1, police have charged him with 14 additional crimes, culminating in Friday’s murder and criminal sexual conduct charges.

In total, he faces four counts of false imprisonment; four counts of exploitation of a vulnerable adult; two counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult; two counts of domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature; two counts of financial transaction card theft; two counts of financial identity fraud; one count of murder and one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The investigation into Arnsdorff’s death remains ongoing and authorities encourage anyone with information about it or any related investigations to contact the Lancaster Police Department at (803) 283-3313.

This story was originally published October 17, 2025 at 6:33 PM.