Paul Gilbert Higgins, a 38-year-old male, tragically lost his life on the evening of Friday, September 27, 2024, in a violent encounter in a wooded area off Griffin Road in Woodruff, South Carolina. The fatal incident, which also resulted in the deaths of two other men, Jeremy Faulkner, 34, also of Woodruff, and Nicolas Long, 22, of Greenville, stemmed from a heated dispute over hunting rights on a particular piece of land.
On that fateful evening, law enforcement responded to reports of
a shooting and discovered the three deceased men at the scene. A fourth individual had also sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound and had been transported to a nearby hospital by a personal vehicle before deputies arrived. Witnesses at the scene, including family members of the deceased, informed investigators that the deadly confrontation erupted from an argument over who had permission to be on the hunting land.
The investigation into the triple homicide was conducted by the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office. Despite the tragic loss of three lives, the sheriff's office announced in February 2025 that after a thorough investigation, the case was considered closed and no charges would be filed against any of the individuals involved. The authorities did not publicly disclose the identity of the fourth person who was injured in the altercation. The decision to close the case without filing charges has left the community and the families of the victims to grapple with the unresolved circumstances surrounding the violent deaths of Paul Higgins, Jeremy Faulkner, and Nicolas Long.
