In the winter of 1987, Charles Alan Bush, a 31-year-old Male engineer, traveled to Cayce, South Carolina, for a work assignment. He and his colleague, 41-year-old Dennis Lollis, were both employed by the M. Lowenstein Corporation and were staying at a local motel while working at the company's Olympia textile mill. Their business trip, however, placed them in the path of a recently released convict and his family, who were plotting a crime that would end two lives and shatter countless
others.
The night of February 11, 1987, began with a deceptive act of manipulation. Donna Torrence, the 20-year-old wife of Thomas Torrence, worked as a topless dancer at a nearby club. She went to the motel where the two engineers were staying and convinced Charles Bush that her car had broken down. A kind gesture to give her a ride home would be his last. When he arrived at her residence in Pine Ridge, he was invited inside. The moment he stepped through the door, he was ambushed by Donna's husband, Thomas, and his younger brother, Michael Rian Torrence. They viciously beat Bush and strangled him to death with a dog chain.
The brutality did not end there. After killing Bush, the Torrence brothers stole his motel room key and drove back to the scene of the initial encounter. Inside the room, Dennis Lollis was asleep in his bed, unaware of the horrific fate that had befallen his colleague. Michael Torrence entered the room and stabbed the sleeping man more than 20 times, ending his life in a frenzy of violence. The motive for the savage, dual murder was robbery. After killing both men, the brothers ransacked the room for money and valuables before fleeing.
The discovery of Lollis's body in the bloody motel room the next day launched an intense investigation. Bush was missing, and his whereabouts remained a mystery until the perpetrators were apprehended. The trail eventually led police to Michael Torrence, who had also murdered a third person, a 20-year-old woman named Cynthia Williams, in March. On April 6, 1987, Michael and Thomas Torrence were arrested at their home in Charleston. During interrogation, they confessed to the murders of Bush and Lollis and revealed where they had buried Charles Bush's body.
The legal process brought the killers to justice, but it also highlighted the callousness of their crimes. Donna Torrence accepted a plea deal for a lesser sentence in exchange for testifying against her husband and brother-in-law. Thomas Torrence was convicted of murder and armed robbery and sentenced to life in prison. Michael Rian Torrence, the man who personally stabbed Dennis Lollis and was the ringleader of the plot, was convicted of three counts of murder. During his sentencing, he told the jury he didn't regret his actions and would do it again if given the chance.
Michael Torrence was sentenced to death. After his initial sentence was overturned on appeal, he was retried, found guilty again, and resentenced to death in 1994. He then waived all further appeals, stating he preferred execution to life in prison. Before his execution, Dennis Lollis's widow, Shelby, announced she would attend, considering it a debt she owed to her late husband. On September 6, 1996, Michael Rian Torrence, 35, was executed by lethal injection at the Broad River Correctional Institution. A handwritten statement read by his lawyer claimed he understood the effects of his crimes and hoped to bring closure to the families. For the families of Charles Bush and Dennis Lollis, the execution marked the final chapter in a legal battle, but it could never erase the senseless loss of two men who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
