In the quiet community of Camden, South Carolina, the life of 37-year-old Dena Michelle Thames came to a tragic and violent end. On the evening of November 10, 2021, her body was discovered on the side of Gaines Church Road, a rural stretch near Highway 97. Investigators determined that the Camden resident had been shot multiple times in what was immediately treated as a homicide investigation.
For a time, the case remained the only unsolved murder in Kershaw County, leaving a community searching for answers and a family grappling with a devastating loss.
The investigation into Thames's death was a collaborative effort between the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Authorities appealed to the public for any information regarding unusual activity in the area where her body was found. They pursued numerous leads and interviewed several individuals over the course of the investigation. A significant breakthrough came when investigators located a blue Infiniti at a scrapyard that they were able to link to the crime through evidence that included surveillance footage, shell casings, and DNA.
More than a year after Dena Thames's death, authorities announced the arrests of two Camden residents in connection with her murder. Antonyio Gary Johnson, 20, and Dexter Maurice Thomas, 29, were taken into custody in January 2023. Both men were charged with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and criminal conspiracy. Thomas faced additional charges of accessory before and after the fact to a felony. Johnson was also facing other unrelated charges for armed robbery, kidnapping, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime from a previous incident. While a bond was set for some of their charges, both men were held at the Kershaw County Detention Center. The arrests brought a sense of relief and the beginning of a path toward justice for Dena's family and the community that had been shaken by her death.
