Out-of-state newlyweds accused of killing a Kentucky man late last week spent their honeymoon as fugitives from the law until they were captured in North Augusta late Thursday outside a home in Murphy Village.
Angela Michelle Orenduff, 38, and Dustin L. Mackie, 23, both of Kevil, Ky., are being held at the Aiken County detention center in connection with the shooting death of 38-year-old Jon M. Crouch, 38, of Paducah, Ky.
He was found shot in the head after his car wrecked in Paducah the evening of May 21. Witnesses in Paducah told police Crouch's Lumina and what appeared to be a silver or gold Chrysler Sebring were stopped in an intersection that Thursday evening before the shooting. Crouch's car was in front of the Sebring that police believe Orenduff and Mackie were in. A woman got out of the Sebring and yelled something at Crouch's car, and then a man got out, but he did not approach Crouch's car, witnesses said.
They got back in the car, and both vehicles left the area, Paducah police report.
About a half block later, the Sebring pulled into the other lane going the wrong way and alongside the Lumina.
A shot was fired, and the Lumina suddenly sped up, hitting a utility pole and a culvert before flipping on its roof. The other car sped away, according to the Paducah Sun.
Crouch died the next day.
Paducah Police Capt. Brandon Barnhill told Paducah reporters they believe Mackie shot Crouch for money.
The two men first crossed paths in 2007 when they were incarcerated for 22 days together at the McCracken County Jail in Kentucky on unrelated charges. Mackie was serving 166 days for contempt of court after he was arrested for misdemeanor assault and fleeing police in January 2007, while Crouch served 22 days for drug charges, according to the Paducah Sun.
Kentucky police got hot on the couple's trail after Mackie's relatives contacted South Carolina police, saying they believed he had been involved in a shooting in Kentucky. Police here called the Kentucky State Police, and they began tracing the couple's cell phone calls.
Barnhill said the family provided police with specific details of the shooting that weren't publicly released and only someone involved would know, but he did not say what those details were, according to the newspaper.
During the couple's cross-country escape attempt, the two stopped in one of the most eastern counties of Kentucky Tuesday afternoon where they were married at the Whitley County Courthouse.
Kay Schwartz, the Whitely County Clerk, told Paducah Sun reporters that the couple came in the office midday Wednesday with Teresa Rains, Mackie's mother, to apply for a marriage license. The Rev. Pearl Kersey, who performed the ceremony, was also quotes in the Kentucky paper.
He said Mackie appeared "addled" and had to repeat requests to get Mackie to comply.
"They were weird," Kersey was quoted as saying in the Paducah Sun. "She had a beautiful dress, and her hair was pretty, but he seemed to be on something."
"You can just sense something about somebody, that they're cold natured. It's the wrong heart to have. He would give you a look that was very cold," those reports said.
More than a week later, Kentucky police narrowed in on the couple when cell phone call made from their phone bounced off an Aiken County cell tower.
Officials there contacted the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, but at the time, local deputies were in the middle of a standoff on Wrights Mill Road with a barricaded suspect and asked state troopers for help.
The S.C. Highway Patrol found Orenduff in Murphy Village about 7 p.m. Thursday. She was with the car outside a residence on Cupid Court, official said.
The three troopers approached the residence together and placed her under arrest, said Sid Gaulden, with the S.C. Department of Public Safety.
Mackie came toward the troopers from behind the house, argued with the men and then reached into his pocket, but he was arrested without incident.
He was carrying a pocketknife, officials said.
Troopers also recovered a weapon and ammunition from the vehicle.
Barnhill told Paducah reporters the gun was the same caliber that was used to kill Crouch.
Kentucky detectives are in Aiken County conducting interviews.
They will extradite the two back to Kentucky.
Contact Karen Daily at kdaily@aikenstandard.com.
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