Murder charges sought in boys' deaths in SC river

[August 17, 2010]  ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) -- Two young boys were pulled dead from the child seats in their car in a river and a South Carolina sheriff said Tuesday he expects to press murder charges against their mother.

Speaking on CBS' "Early Show," Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams said there were inconsistencies in the mother's account that she'd been in an accident, such as her clothes being dry.

"For someone who had just plunged into the Edisto River here, of course, and had two children in the car, her clothing wasn't damp," Williams said of Shaquan Duley's initial report.

The sheriff also noted that Duley, 29, walked some distance from the car to find help when there were nearby houses.

Williams said investigators were ready to present their case to a judge in hopes of getting murder charges against Duley, who was in custody Tuesday.

Duley was arrested Monday and was being held on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after her two sons were found dead in a vehicle in the North Edisto River, still strapped into their car seats.

Autopsies were planned Tuesday on the bodies of 2-year-old Devean C. Duley and 18-month-old Ja'van T. Duley to determine how they died.

Neither Williams nor Coroner Samuetta Marshall returned telephone calls early Tuesday from The Associated Press.

Williams planned a news conference for 10 a.m. to discuss more details.

In 1994, the state saw another case in which two sons were found dead in their car. Susan Smith left her 3-year-old and 14-month-old sons strapped in their car seats as she rolled her car into a lake in Union County in the northwest part of the state. She was convicted in their deaths and is serving a life prison term.

On Monday, Williams said that early in the investigation, state patrol officers felt the facts didn't support that there was accident.

"We are looking into all possibilities as to what happened," the sheriff said.

The sheriff said investigators were considering how a traffic accident could have happened at the boat ramp, about 20 yards upstream from a main road that crosses the North Edisto River in Orangeburg, some 35 miles south of Columbia, the state capital.

A woman who watched divers pull the toddlers' limp bodies out of the car near her home said she couldn't understand why the boys' mother didn't bang on her door for help. Ramona Milhouse, whose side porch door is steps from the river, said at first Monday she thought the boys were unconscious, until she realized their bodies were being taken to the ambulance with no attempt to revive them.

"It sounds fishy to me," the 81-year-old Milhouse said. "If that was an accident, that woman would've been over here screamin' and hollerin' and really raising the devil."

Milhouse said when she and her husband woke up and looked outside, rescue workers were already at the car, and she could see the head of one boy above the water. The car had to come from the boat landing, on the other side of a concrete bridge adjoining her property, and down the slow-moving river, said Milhouse, who's lived full-time at the riverside home for about 35 years.

"It's real low," she said, so it could have taken awhile.

The car windows were up, and she heard rescuers say the ignition was on. She watched as the car was pulled down the middle of the river and hauled onto the bridge with a crane.

Besides the Milhouses, a mobile home and a mechanic's shop are also nearby.

Local residents said they, too, were suspicious.

Shakeyia Baxter said the main road was heavily traveled in the mornings and would have been especially busy on Monday -- the first day of school. Baxter stopped by the boat ramp, which is littered with empty beer cases and discarded soda bottles, on her way home from work to tuck silk flowers into a sign that warns of high levels of mercury in the fish. Lily pads dotted the dingy water by the ramp, and mosquitoes swarmed.

"My heart goes out to them," said Baxter, a 30-year-old mother of two. "I would have been doing everything I could to get those kids out of that car seat."

[Associated Press; By SEANNA ADCOX]

Associated Press writer Bruce Smith in Charleston contributed to this story.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.