Lisa Kay James, 44, a White resident of Cowpens, South Carolina, was found dead on Tuesday afternoon, November 18, 2014, inside a home on Old Pacolet Road after deputies were asked to conduct a welfare check. When they went to the house, they discovered two bodies inside: Lisa’s and that of Rex Miguel Scott, a retired Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office deputy.
At first, officials publicly described the situation only as a death investigation, noting that the pair had been found in their home and that investigators were working to determine what happened. The discovery sent a ripple of unease through the small Upstate community, where welfare checks usually end with a relieved knock on the door—not silence and tragedy.
Within days, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger announced his findings: Lisa’s death was ruled a homicide, and Scott’s death a suicide. The coroner said both died from gunshot wounds to the head. Investigators also said the two had recently married, a detail that sharpened the heartbreak and made the scene feel even more sudden—like a life that had barely begun to settle into place before it shattered.
Because the person believed responsible for the homicide was also deceased, there were no arrests, charges, court proceedings, or trials arising from the case, and the investigation was framed publicly as a homicide-suicide rather than an ongoing search for a separate suspect.
In the days that followed, the story of the investigation ran alongside the story of Lisa’s life. An obituary published locally described her as having roots in the Upstate—born in Easley—and noted her surviving family, including her mother, children, siblings, and grandchildren, with visitation planned at Liberty Mortuary and no service scheduled at that time.
