Search for Dara Watson continues in forest

UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. -- About a dozen investigators were searching woods this afternoon around the site where Dara Watson's sports-utility vehicle was found burning last week.

About 1 p.m., U.S. Forest Service workers plowed a path through pine trees about a half-mile south of Halfway Creek Road in the Francis Marion National Forest near Awendaw.

A dog then walked through the area, followed by a dozen sheriff's investigators holding shovels and rakes.

David Hedrick, Watson's fiance, was seen carrying a shovel "very close" to the area Feb. 7 after Watson's GMC was found torched late that afternoon.

The shovel was found during an initial search for Watson on Saturday.

Today's search at that location turned up nothing, except for a snake.

Other groups were searching in other areas of the forest.

UPDATE: 9:47 a.m. Deputies have found a shovel that might have been the one David Hedrick was carrying from the scene of his fiancee’s burning SUV last week in the Francis Marion National Forest.

The discovery was made just off Halfway Creek Road during the initial search last weekend, sheriff’s Maj. Jim Brady confirmed this morning. He said the shovel would be checked for DNA to tie it to the missing-persons case of Dara Watson.

“We found a shovel,” Brady said, adding that he didn’t have a more precise description of the tool. “We’re going to see if it connects.”

A witness saw Hedrick carrying a shovel very close to Halfway Creek Road and United Drive, where Watson’s GMC Envoy became engulfed in flames just before 6 p.m. Feb. 7.

Hedrick, who fatally shot himself Friday just after Watson was reported missing, was involved in her disappearance, according to the Mount Pleasant Police Department.

The sheriff’s office planned to conduct an aerial search of the forest today.

Police were told that Hedrick hitched a ride that day to the couple's North Creek Drive home in Mount Pleasant after leaving the forest. The 34-year-old shot himself in his bedroom Friday after speaking to investigators about the missing person's case, officials said.

Charleston County Coroner Ray Wooten on Tuesday ruled the death a suicide.

Watson and Hedrick were last seen together Feb. 6, leaving Boone, N.C., where they had been visiting Watson's mother. Mount Pleasant Police Chief Harry Sewell said the couple had an argument in Boone about the upcoming wedding. One friend told The Post and Courier that Watson was backing out of the wedding.

Sewell said a witness positively identified Hedrick coming out of the woods with a shovel. He said investigators described Hedrick as being calm when he was asked about his fiancee's whereabouts.

Two friends were outside the couple's home Friday when they heard the shot that ended Hedrick's life. The friends wanted to speak to him about Watson's disappearance.

One friend, Patrick O'Neil, said "something was eating at" Hedrick in the days before he shot himself.

Friends and co-workers knew the situation was desperate when the couple didn't show up at their workplaces early last week. In telephone conversations with O'Neil, Hedrick refused to meet for dinner or discuss whatever was bothering him.

O'Neil, of Mount Pleasant, went to Hedrick's house in the RiverTowne subdivision Friday afternoon and knocked, but there was no answer.

He said he saw a car in the garage packed with clothes. O'Neil said he thought about breaking into the home, but hesitated to do so.

Then, a gunshot.

O'Neil and a friend smashed a back door's window and ran to the master bedroom. They found Hedrick lying on the bed. He had a bullet wound in his head.

Watson's sister and her boss at Verge Solutions said they received text messages early in the week from Watson's phone, but that the texts ceased later in the week. Investigators believe Hedrick sent the messages.

The couple had dated since April 2008 and became engaged last month, O'Neil said.

Both were dedicated workers for their employers.

Hedrick had been a bartender at the Carolina Yacht Club in 2005 when a company official from Palmetto Surety Corp. offered him a marketing job, according to several sources. By 2008, he had assumed the role as the Daniel Island company's president and CEO.

Frances Jenkins, a bail bondsman underwritten by Palmetto Surety, said she had trouble contacting Hedrick for a bond approval in the last few weeks.

Like many who knew the couple, Jenkins thought Watson and Hedrick were simply late getting back in town after Super Bowl weekend.

"When I heard he didn't show up at the office, it didn't seem like David," she said. "I was actually mad. ... It was an odd set of circumstances."

Jenkins held out hope Tuesday that Watson would be found safe as police called for residents to continue phoning in tips.

"It was a shock. David was a happy person," Jenkins said. "Now, I'm just really concerned about her."

O'Neil said that of his 20 closest friends, Watson and Hedrick were always the happiest.

They had lucrative jobs. They threw parties at their Mount Pleasant house. And they traveled. They recently returned from a vacation to Egypt, and they planned a wedding in Fiji.

When they started to argue, they would quickly replace their anger with laughter.

"They were such good people. They were successful," O'Neil said. "But he was just very distraught (last week). He said they got in a fight, and she didn't want to get married."

Reach Andrew Knapp at 937-5414 or on Twitter at @offlede. Reach Edward C. Fennell at 937-5560.