The white male victim, Avery Leroy Howard, was a 34-year-old resident of Charleston, South Carolina, who became entangled in the violent web of a notorious serial killer in the spring of 1975. On April 10, 1975, Howard traveled to the Prospect area of Florence County, accompanied by his girlfriend, Dianne Bellamy Neeley. The couple had reportedly intended to meet with Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins, an acquaintance and ex-convict whom Howard knew from time spent in state prison.
The meeting was ostensibly arranged under the pretense of a financial transaction, with reports indicating that Howard and Neeley were attempting to blackmail Gaskins for $5,000 in exchange for their silence regarding a separate murder Gaskins had committed earlier that year.
Upon their arrival, the situation turned deadly. Instead of paying the demanded hush money, Gaskins lured the couple into a trap near his home. According to later confessions, Gaskins shot Howard to death and stabbed Neeley, burying their bodies in shallow graves in the woods surrounding his property. For months, their disappearance remained unsolved as Gaskins continued his criminal activities. The break in the case came in November 1975, when a criminal associate named Walter Neeley—Dianne’s estranged husband—confessed to police that he had knowledge of the murders. Walter Neeley told authorities that Gaskins had confided in him about killing several missing persons and led investigators to the burial site in Prospect, where they discovered the remains of Howard, Dianne Neeley, and several other victims.
Following the discovery of the bodies, Donald Henry Gaskins was arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder. Although he was initially tried and sentenced to death for the murder of another victim, that sentence was later overturned by the state Supreme Court. To avoid a retrial and the possibility of another death sentence, Gaskins entered a plea agreement in 1978. He pleaded guilty to the murders of Avery Leroy Howard, Dianne Bellamy Neeley, and seven others, receiving ten concurrent life sentences. He remained incarcerated until his execution in 1991 for a separate murder committed while in prison.
