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| Jonathan Galligan |
39-year-old Jonathan Galligan, also known as "Stretch," and 41-year-old Christian Daniel Hurlburt have both been arrested and charged with murder and accessory after the fact of a felony.
From the sheriff's office:
CAPTURED !!! Jonathan Galligan wanted for murder in connection to two bodies discovered at 137 Williams St yesterday has been captured. Sheriff Wright would like to thank the public for their assistance in location Galligan.
According to WENY-TV in Elmira, Galligan has ties to the Bath and Avoca, N.Y. areas.
From WSPA-TV:
According to the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called to a disturbance at Little Man's Towing on Howard Street Wednesday night around 8:00 p.m.
There, deputies say they found a man who would not comply with commands and eventually pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head in front of deputies.
That man, later identified as Hurlburt, told deputies Thursday at the hospital that he had witnessed Galligan kill Christin Brunner at the towing company and later helped him bury Brunner behind a house at the 100 block of Williams Street.
27-year-old Christin Renee Bunner was reported missing in December 2018 and deputies say they were told that Galligan was Bunner's boyfriend.
Investigators say they checked the property Thursday night but were unable to find the burial site so investigators returned to the scene Friday morning to search with cadaver dogs in the daylight.
Deputies say they brought Galligan in to interview him in for the case Friday morning but due to a lack of evidence at the time they were forced to release him.
When deputies returned to the hospital to interview Hurlburt, he repeated the information he gave deputies and also confessed that there was a second woman buried at the Williams Street property.
Hurlburt told deputies that he did not know her name but had killed her at the towing company on Howard Street in January 2019 and that he and Galligan buried her near Bunner.
Investigators say Hurlburt gave a more specific location of the graves and both bodies were recovered Friday afternoon.
The second victim was later identified with finger prints as 40-year-old Melissa Fairlee Rhymer of Mountville, South Carolina.
Deputies say Rhymer was not listed as a missing person by any law enforcement agency.
Galligan was arrested Saturday afternoon after he was spotted by a convenience store clerk, according to the sheriff's office.
Hurlburt was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon, shortly after Galligan was taken into custody.
The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office says the investigation is continuing into the two homicides and that they don't yet have a motive for either. Investigators say they do not have any evidence that there are any other victims or additional suspects.
