In the early hours of July 10, 2018, the sound of gunshots broke the stillness of a summer night in a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, apartment complex. When police responded to the scene at the Magnolia North apartments, they discovered the body of 42-year-old Mark Verhasselt in the parking lot. An investigation revealed he had been fatally shot. Verhasselt, a male who was originally from Fayetteville, North Carolina, had been living in the Myrtle Beach area on and off for several years.
At the time of his death, he was a person of interest in a missing person case out of Fayetteville.
The investigation into Verhasselt's death led Horry County Police to identify a suspect within hours. Marquis Shawn Brown, a 32-year-old from Fayetteville, was taken into custody days later. Another man from Fayetteville, Matthew Isaiah Rivera, was also implicated in the crime. The subsequent legal proceedings revealed a complex history, with Brown being out on bond for the murder charge from September 2020 until February of the following year, during which time he was arrested on unrelated drug and firearm charges.
Ultimately, both men were held accountable for their roles in Verhasselt's death. In January 2022, Matthew Isaiah Rivera was sentenced to eight years in prison. In September 2023, a jury found Marquis Shawn Brown guilty of murder. He received the maximum sentence of life in prison for the shooting death of Mark Verhasselt.
