Freddie Grant: Child killer charged for killing girlfriend as remains found 13 years after disappearance

SOUTH CAROLINA: A murderer who was convicted in South Carolina has been charged with another killing - this time for the death of a woman whose remains were found in a sand pit almost 13 years after she disappeared.

In connection with the death and disappearance of his then-girlfriend Adriana Laster, 28, in 2011, Freddie Grant, 64, is accused of two counts of domestic abuse and one count each of kidnapping and murder.

Adriana Laster suffered domestic abuse

The deceased woman had suffered domestic abuse at the hands of the defendant, a state prisoner, in the months preceding her death.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott stated in remarks that were published by The Times and Democrat, “This was a long time coming. We knew that he was responsible for Adriana Laster’s death but it was just a matter of finding her body.”

According to The State, the charges against Grant were submitted to Kershaw County on February 1. Laster revealed in warrants that she believed her ex-boyfriend was attempting to murder her.

One Sunday morning in September 2011, she left her house to walk to church, and she was never seen alive again. In March of 2012, her family filed an official missing person's report.

Early in January, a worker at an Elgin quarry made the startling discovery while unloading sand that had been moved by an excavator at a Tri D Materials mine. This led to the discovery of Laster's remains. About a week went by before those remains were identified.

Freddie Grant slammed Adriana Laster's face against brick wall

Laster's paternal grandmother, and the person who raised her daughter Crystal, Phyllis Horn, said to Columbia, WLTX last month, "I just feel now that to us that she’s free, and the butterfly that she has always wanted to be, she is that butterfly. She was maybe 17 when she had Crystal, but Crystal was the love of her life.”

After relocating from Florida to South Carolina in 2009 to live with Grant, Crystal Laster attempted to live with her mother, but after about a week, she returned to her grandmother, according to WIS10.

"She said, ‘I do not like him,’" Horn told the TV station, "She said ‘he’s just so arrogant’ and that he didn’t have no patience with her or her mom."

Grant violently assaulted Laster in March 2011, slamming her face against a brick wall and dragging her into his vehicle. The following month he was arrested, and in July 2011 he was found guilty of criminal domestic violence.

He received a 30-day jail sentence along with a nominal fine. A few months later, Laster was gone.

Her remains were identified by Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford. According to the State, the identification was accomplished using DNA at the crime lab run by the sheriff's office.

The cause of death is yet to be ascertained. "That requires a complete set of human remains and we just don’t have that currently," Rutherford stated in remarks cited by the newspaper.

Freddie Grant listed as person of interest ten years ago

Grant's arrest warrants had been prepared by local police for more than two years, Elgin Mayor Melissa Emmons informed the State.

After being long-suspected in Laster's demise, the defendant entered a guilty plea in 2013 to killing 15-year-old Gabrielle "Gabbiee" Swainson, who had been kidnapped from her Columbia, Richland County, home in August 2012.

In accordance with the conditions of the plea agreement, Grant guided detectives to the location where he disposed of Swanson's body in return for a 30-year prison term and the dismissal of charges against his daughter Dominique Grant, who had previously been accused of accessory after the fact.

The Richland County Sheriff called Grant a "monster that continues to haunt this community" in remarks made to the State, Lott. A third murder has also been linked to the defendant.

Grant was listed as a person of interest by the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office more than ten years ago in relation to the shooting death of Daniel Lee Wood, 36, in Lugoff in October 2011 following an altercation.

In 2012, Jim Matthews, a retired Kershaw County sheriff, told WIS 10, "The man who was shot and killed, his address is across the street from Freddie Grant’s. He wasn’t shot there, he was shot someplace else, so we feel like they knew each other. And that is really all I’m prepared to talk about right now.”

As for Lott, he seemed to support the theory of triple murder. "We’re not going to stop until we find every victim that Freddie Grant had," the Richland County sheriff declared last month.