In a case that shocked the community of Lancaster, South Carolina, 18-year-old Austin Tyler Steele was brutally murdered in February 2018. Steele, a male who was on the autism spectrum, had moved in with Christopher Allen Holford, 30, and his wife, Brandy Nicole Faye Duncan, 19, just two months before his death. The grim details of his death began to surface on March 1, 2018, when authorities received a tip about a possible homicide at a residence on High Point Circle.
The investigation
led deputies to the property where Steele lived in a mobile home with Holford and Duncan. There, they made a horrific discovery. Steele's dismembered remains were found scattered across the property. Investigators located his torso buried, his skull left outside, and other bones in a burn barrel and a box under the mobile home. The investigation revealed that weeks prior, Holford had shot Steele in the neck. Steele did not die immediately, succumbing to his injury the following morning. Following his death, Holford dismembered his body in an attempt to hide the crime.
The chain of events leading to the discovery of Steele's body began with a domestic violence incident. Holford was arrested on domestic violence charges on March 1, just before the sheriff's office was notified of the homicide. During an incident at a hospital, a nurse witnessed Holford assault Duncan, who then repeatedly called Holford a killer. This outcry ultimately led law enforcement to investigate the claims and uncover the murder.
Christopher Allen Holford was charged with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. His wife, Brandy Nicole Faye Duncan, was charged as an accessory to murder for her role in helping to conceal the body parts. In November 2020, Christopher Holford pleaded guilty to the charges against him. He admitted to shooting Steele and then dismembering and burning his body. Prosecutors revealed that Holford had initially blamed his wife for the killing but later confessed in letters from jail, one of which he signed as 'Hatchet Man.' Holford was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the murder of Austin Tyler Steele. Brandy Nicole Faye Duncan was convicted of accessory after the fact to murder and was sentenced to 2-12 years in prison.
