After a massive five-day search for missing Lowcountry Constable Robert Lee Bailey, officers were led to a rural area near I-26 exit 149 in Orangeburg County Saturday, where evidence is being gathered to identify a body discovered in a shallow grave.

Around 6:15 p.m., Saturday, the freshly excavated site was located approximately 50 feet from a dirt road at the base of a cell phone tower off Till Road. According to Capt. John Clark, public information officer with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Department, cadaver dogs alerted on the area.

“There is no identification at this time. We have tentatively concluded that this was presumably the individual we have been looking for,” said Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams, who added the recovery team had been searching around Bull Swamp Church.

Shelly Sutcliffe, who lives less than a mile from the site where the body was located, said, “I’ve spent a lot of time on this dirt road and nothing like this has ever happened.

“It’s scary. It’s very scary,” she said adding that her son Charlie rides his bike up and down the dirt road and was out riding last night until around 8:30 p.m.

After discovering what was believed to be the missing constable, Rob Dewey, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office chaplain, said, “The family (of Robert Lee Bailey) wishes to express their gratitude to all the emergency workers that have worked so hard to bring a resolution to this terrible situation. It’s been a very long week for them. They want their father and grandfather brought home. And, this looks like the resolution to that.”

Dewey said the family does not understand why something this terrible has happened, but they have a good support system through their church.

“They are asking that you keep them in your thoughts and prayers, as for any of us it would be a very difficult time. They are asking that you keep this in the forefront of praying for law enforcement and in what their father and grandfather was doing in trying to make our community a better place and paying the ultimate sacrifice,” said Dewey.

Bailey, 67, was last seen Monday night making a traffic stop in Lincolnville, in Charleston County. A few minutes later and a few blocks down the road, gunfire was heard. His hat and gun and a pool of blood were found in a yard and his burning cruiser found a few miles away off Interstate 26.

Later in the week, his badge and handcuffs case were found in a wad of burned rags near Harleyville, about 20 miles farther up the interstate.

The search near Bowman began Friday after officials found a car believed to be connected to Bailey’s disappearance. The burned-out, black 1989 Chevrolet Caprice belonged to one of the men being questioned, deputies said.

Officers began searching the rural areas off South Carolina Highway 33 north of I-26 on ATVs and on foot around 2 p.m. Saturday, working off a lead that they had obtained from Asia Prioleau, the first person charged in this case.

“Asia Prioleau has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder, and depending on the investigation, we anticipate that charge to be updated,” said Clark of the 22-year-old girlfriend of the chief suspect, Walter Fayall, 24, who is currently being held on federal gun charges and has not yet been charged in this case. Two other men, associates of Fayall, have been arrested on unrelated charges.

Investigators think Prioleau was at the home in Lincolnville where the blood was found and helped take Bailey from the area.

Orangeburg Coroner Samuetta Marshall was called to the scene that she described as a wooded area covered in pine straw. But no identification could proceed until experts from Columbia, who are trained in archaeological digs and preserving the area, could arrive.

As officials gathered evidence and waited to have the grave excavated, Marshall said the body found was believed to be the missing constable, but nothing could be determined officially until the cadaver was exhumed.

Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon said the department sent out search teams in logical areas that were consistent with areas in which they had found items before and had a bloodhound tracking team in this general area.

“They (the search team) went down to the little road that went into the cell tower where there is a slight wood line. They observed a lot of pine straw that looked like it had been disturbed. The dog was very interested in that area,” said Cannon, who added there appeared to be some clods of dirt that were smooth on the side like a shovel had been involved.

According to Cannon, the initial search team dug down a little bit and found some more pine straw and immediately called in the Charleston County Crime Scene investigators.

“Our crime scene folks found soft tissue and a body,” said Cannon, who said at that point they began processing the area as a crime scene, photographing by helicopter from the air, talking with the SLED crime team.

“We have asked the Chicora Foundation, who are experts in excavating graves, (to assist) us at our direction in processing the grave,” said Cannon around 8:25 p.m.

“We have found a body. We have not identified that body yet. We are just glad it looks like we’ve found something,” he said.

“This has been a bizarre case that defies logic,” said Cannon. “There is a tremendous amount of evidence here at this scene,” he said.

“This is going to take a considerable amount of time to do it professionally,” said Cannon, adding it would be several hours before any determination could be made in identifying the body.

Cannon said he appreciated the assistance of Williams and the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office in this case. OCSO Capt. Michael Bartley said the department offered manpower and equipment to aid in this search that has led officers through three counties from Charleston to Dorchester to Orangeburg.

Bailey, a retired Dorchester County deputy, was a constable with Lincolnville for about five years, volunteering his time to the small town which has only one paid officer.

There are a little more than 2,000 constables in South Carolina. Bailey was one of 80 known as group three advanced constables.

Sgt. Richie Hill, who worked with Bailey in Lincolnville, said, “If this turns out to be his body, that’s what we wanted. We just want our man back. Whoever is responsible for this, there was no need for all this. He was doing his job. It could have been me, it could have been any veteran law enforcement officer there.

“A lot of this hasn’t made sense. Hopefully this is some kind of conclusion today for everybody involved, the investigators, myself, the family, the community and especially the town of Lincolnville,” said Hill.

Dewey said donations to the Robert Bailey Assistance Fund, sponsored by the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy, can be made at any Wachoviabranch bank.

-- T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker contributed to this report.

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