In the late autumn of 2017, a tragic series of events unfolded in Beaufort, South Carolina, culminating in the death of 19-year-old Chaz Blanding. The young man, a male, was last seen alive on the night of November 21, leaving his home with his 25-year-old uncle, Robert Blanding. The two were reportedly as close as brothers, making their joint disappearance all the more alarming for their family.
The grim discovery began the following day, November 22, when Robert Blanding's body was
found with multiple gunshot wounds in a drainage ditch on Lady's Island. This immediately prompted a search for Chaz, who was reported as a missing and endangered person. For ten days, his family and law enforcement anxiously sought his whereabouts. The search came to a heartbreaking end on December 2, when Chaz Blanding's body was discovered in a wooded area off Simmons Road on St. Helena Island. A subsequent forensic autopsy confirmed that he too had died from multiple gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly led to several suspects. Initially, three teenagers were identified in connection with Robert Blanding's death. Raheem Bennett, who was 16 at the time, and 19-year-old Nashon Pringle were both charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Channon Preston Jr., 18, was initially charged with accessory after the fact to murder. As the investigation deepened, more individuals were implicated. Symone Jones, 20, and Gerard Kenard “Roddy” Daise were also arrested. Preston and Jones later had their charges upgraded to two counts of murder.
The legal process that followed brought some measure of resolution, though not without its complexities. In March 2021, Nashon Pringle, then 21, and his half-brother Raheem Bennett, then 19, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of both Robert and Chaz Blanding. Pringle was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Bennett received an 18-year sentence. Symone Jones, then 23, had previously pleaded guilty in October 2019 to two counts of accessory after the fact of murder and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The case against two other defendants, Gerard Daise and Channon Preston, proved more difficult for the prosecution. Due to a lack of physical evidence and the case relying heavily on co-defendant testimony, a jury could not reach a verdict on their guilt, and the charges against them were ultimately dismissed. The motive for the killings was believed to be an apparent robbery attempt that took place on a secluded road on Lady's Island.
