On the morning of June 1, 2021, the quiet along Highway 41 near the 576 Bypass in Marion County was broken by a shooting that left John “Darren” Grainger, a 52-year-old man, dead in his own yard. The Marion County coroner said he was shot just after 4 a.m., and investigators moved quickly to lock down the area as word spread that deputies had found him deceased at the scene.
To the people who knew him around Marion, Grainger was more than the grim headline that followed.
His death notice remembered him as someone rooted in the community, a member of Centenary Baptist Church who worked driving a gas truck and also did autobody paint and repair, the kind of steady, practical work that ties a small town together in ordinary days.
In the first days after the killing, officials acknowledged little beyond the basic facts, saying the State Law Enforcement Division was assisting and that deputies had shut down part of the road while the investigation unfolded. Within a week, the case took a sharper turn: Samuel Diego Pacheco of Conway was arrested and charged with Grainger’s murder. A Marion County magistrate arraigned him, and it was reported that any bond decision would have to come later from a circuit court judge; he was being held at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center in Horry County.
Then, about a month later, investigators announced a second arrest connected to what happened in that yard off Highway 41. Jordan Danielle Grainger was charged with accessory after the fact of murder and misprision of felony in connection with the death. The sheriff said a motive had not been released, and while the suspect’s relationship to the victim was not officially provided, community members told reporters they believed the victim was her father. At the time of that report, she was being held at a Marion County detention center and there was no public word on when a bond hearing would be held.
