Body found off I-26 victim of homicide; Man charged with carjacking, murder

A 28-year-old St. George man is accused of holding up a couple at gunpoint late Friday night, taking their car, forcing the female to ride with him, and then killing her and dumping her body off Interstate 26.

Tyler A. Brown Kelly of Boyd Brown Road is charged by the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office with murder, said Dan Moon, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s office.

North Charleston police have charged him with kidnapping, carjacking, possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime and attempted armed robbery, said police spokesman Spencer Pryor.

Shortly before midnight, North Charleston officers were dispatched to 5633-G Dorchester Road for a reported carjacking, Pryor said.

A male victim told police that an unknown black male, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with a slim build, had approached him and a female friend in the parking lot, brandishing a pistol and demanding their car.

The gunman forced the woman to get in the car and then drove off.

Police broadcast a description of the stolen car, a Toyota Camry, and the woman who had been abducted. They later got word that a woman’s body had been found off an entrance ramp at Interstate 26 and Road 16, also known as Jedburg Road, in Berkeley County.

A short time later, St. George Police Department officers observed the stolen Camry in St. George, but they lost sight of it. Deputies from the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office later found the Camry at a night club on McKeen Street, where a black male was seen running from the car.

Deputies and police closed in, and a man was arrested in the area of Hudson Road in St. George, Pryor said.

Brown-Kelly was booked by North Charleston police before being transferred to the Hill-Finklea Detention Center in Moncks Corner, Pryor said.

The Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the homicide, Pryor said.

According to a news release from Berkeley County Coroner Bill Salisbury, the woman’s body was found at 2:55 a.m.

An autopsy was scheduled for this afternoon to determine the cause of death, Salisbury said. The woman’s identity was not released pending the notification of her family.