The life of Douglas Malcolm Strock, a 48-year-old White man from Santee, South Carolina, ended violently on the morning of January 19, 2024. His death occurred inside a room at the Super 8 motel on Old Number Six Highway in Santee.
According to Santee Police Chief Joseph Serrano, officers found Strock in room 122, where he had been shot and killed. The investigation that followed pointed to a history of conflict leading up to the fatal shooting.
Warrants later claimed that Strock and the woman accused of killing him had been involved in a series of domestic incidents that began the previous day.
Police identified 41-year-old Janna Marie Rutherford, a resident of Santee, as the suspect in Strock’s death. While details of the incident were not fully released, a news report at the time noted that Rutherford claimed the shooting had been an accident.
Janna Marie Rutherford was subsequently charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. As of January 2024, the case was pending litigation.
