Ladejia Shantell Hill, 21, a Black woman, was found dead late on Monday night, March 24, 2014, after Horry County police were sent to a home on Live Oak Road in Longs, South Carolina, on a report of a shooting. When officers arrived at about 10 p.m., the front door was standing open, and inside they discovered Hill’s body, turning what began as a call for service into the start of a major-crimes investigation.
In the hours that followed, investigators treated the scene as a homicide while the Horry County Coroner’s Office moved quickly to determine exactly what had happened. An autopsy performed the next day concluded that Hill had died from a gunshot wound, and the manner of death was ruled homicide. The coroner’s finding hardened the case into a search for whoever had pulled the trigger, and detectives said they were working to identify the person or people responsible.
Public reporting from that period described the investigation as active, with major-crimes detectives looking for suspects, but it did not name a suspect or outline a public theory of the shooting. No arrest was announced in those initial updates, and authorities’ public statements emphasized that the work at that stage centered on identifying who was involved and piecing together what led to the gunfire inside the Longs residence.
In the days after her death, Hill’s family and community shifted from shock to mourning, arranging funeral services in nearby Wampee, with burial to follow in the church cemetery, while the criminal investigation continued in the background.
