South Carolina Elementary School Principal Found Shot to Death in Car
An Acquaintance, Kyle Church, is Charged with Murder
The victim was identified as Dr. Wendy Cook, 54, of Dillon County, coroner Donnie Grimsley told NBC News. She died of a gunshot wound, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
Dillon County deputies were called Saturday evening to the 1800 block of Southwind Road in Dillon, SC, and discovered a woman dead inside a car, Sheriff Douglas Pernell told NBC affiliate WMBF of Myrtle Beach.
Authorities arrested Kyle Church, 31 at the shooting scene and charged him with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Sheriff Douglass Pernell said that when deputies arrived, they found both Cook and Church inside the car, and Cook was dead. Deputies also recovered a gun. Pernell said Cook and Church were acquaintances, but no further details were shared.
According to her obituary, Cook was a mother to two children and grandmother to one grandson. Social media users remembered the principal as “loving” and “talented.”
“I am saddened by the passing of Dr. Wendy Cook, principal of Stewart Heights Elementary School. Her colleagues and friends in Dillon County School District 4 talk about the great work she did leading her school and many of the impacts she had on her students and staff,” South Carolina Department of Education Superintendent Molly Spearman said in a statement.
Kyle Church, who is charged with murder in the deadly shooting of the Dillon school principal, is also named in a lawsuit filed in July of 2021 involving a deadly crash.
Teddy Yarborough was killed after a car hit an ATV in June 2020 in Dillon County, according to authorities. Yarborough was a passenger on the ATV at the time.
The lawsuit alleges that Church was driving the ATV and was hit after he failed to yield the right-of-way to a Chevrolet Suburban.
South Carolina Highway Patrol said their investigation found that Church was shown as contributing to the collision, but no citation was issued.
Both the murder and the lawsuit are ongoing investigations.
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