In the summer of 2020, the quiet community of Patrick, South Carolina, was unsettled by the violent deaths of two men. On Monday, June 22, 2020, the bodies of 36-year-old Ricky Roy Betts and 37-year-old Robert Larry Skowronski were discovered on Lizzie Bird Lane in the Society Hill area of Chesterfield County. Both men, residents of Patrick, had been shot to death, their bodies left in the middle of the rural road, signaling a grim end to their lives and the beginning of a complex homicide
investigation.
The Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office quickly took the lead in the double homicide case. Within days, their investigation pointed them toward two suspects. The diligent work of the investigators led to the arrests of Justin Johnson, then 19, of Hartsville, and Raheem McFadden, then 23, of Society Hill. The proximity of McFadden's residence to the crime scene suggested a local connection to the brutal slayings. The arrests brought a sense of relief to the community, as the seemingly random act of violence began to take a more defined shape.
Following their apprehension, both Johnson and McFadden were charged with two counts of murder and one count of criminal conspiracy. They were taken into custody and booked at the Chesterfield County Detention Center, facing a future entangled in the legal ramifications of the serious allegations against them. The charges indicated that law enforcement believed the murders were a coordinated effort, a planned act rather than a spontaneous burst of violence. While the initial arrests and charges were publicly announced, the subsequent legal proceedings, including any trials, convictions, or sentences for Justin Johnson and Raheem McFadden, have not been detailed in publicly available information. The final chapter in the story of Ricky Roy Betts's death remains unresolved in the public record.
