SC pair accused of not helping a woman crying for help as she was beaten to death

A South Carolina man and woman are accused of listening for two hours as a pregnant woman cried for help as she was beaten to death in their Marietta home.

Twenty-two-year-old Clarrissa Winchester was found dead in the Saw Mill Road home Nov. 9, beaten in the head and neck. At some point, Winchester’s baby was born.

The baby’s father and Winchester’s boyfriend, Tyler Wilkins, has been charged with killing her and not getting help for the baby.

Authorities have not said what Winchester was beaten with, but her father, Mike Winchester, told The State she was punched repeatedly. He also said he has not been told whether the baby was still born or died from lack of care. The mother was seven months pregnant when she was murdered.

The two other people allegedly in the house at the time of the beating were brother and sister Michael Thomas Burnett, 43, and Melissa Michelle Burnett, 49, who were arrested Saturday. Lt. Ryan Flood, a Greenville County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said the Burnetts are Wilkins’ uncle and aunt.

They are charged with failure to report a felony.

They were released on bond.

Wilkins was out on bond at the time Winchester was murdered, facing charges of domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, two counts of attempted murder, pointing and presenting a firearm, resisting arrest, throwing bodily fluids and threatening the life of a public official, a SLED background check showed.

He spent about six weeks in jail.

Mike Winchester said he and his wife, Melinda, went to the Saw Mill Road house looking for their daughter and then called deputies when Wilkins wouldn’t let them in. Clarrissa Winchester and the baby were dead when deputies arrived.

Wilkins is also being investigated in connection with the disappearance of his former girlfriend Jorden Nebling, 19. Wilkins picked her up on Oct. 10, 2020, after a car she had borrowed from a friend broke down. Her family did not report her missing for a month, which complicated the investigation.

Wilkins, 21, is being held without bond in the Greenville County Detention Center.

Winchester and her baby, Grayson, were buried Nov. 16 in the cemetery at Golden Grove Baptist Church in Travelers Rest.