Deputies first reported it as a vehicle fire on a quiet rural road in Florence County. Only after the flames were out did investigators realize the woman inside had come there expecting to meet a puppy seller.
The Victim, the Roadside Fire, and 3 Arrests
Authorities in South Carolina say 40-year-old Dana Marie Kinlaw of Olanta was found dead in a burning vehicle near the intersection of Atlantic Road and Springbranch Road in Effingham, a small farming community in Florence County. The death is now being investigated as a homicide that the local sheriff has described as a revenge killing, according to reporting by Law&Crime and Myrtle Beach station WMBF.
Three people have been arrested in connection with Kinlaw’s death. According to the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, Iryanna Jarisha Fleming, 19, Daquinn Taheen Thomas, 31, and Nikko Christopher Carraway, 31, are each charged with murder, first-degree arson, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
As of the most recent public reporting, Fleming and Thomas were being held at the Florence County Detention Center awaiting bond hearings. Carraway was taken into custody shortly afterward. Court records and law enforcement releases reviewed for this article do not yet show any trial dates or plea entries. All three remain presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
A Trip to Buy a Puppy, According to Investigators
Deputies were dispatched in late January around 5:45 p.m. for a report of a vehicle on fire near the rural crossroads in Effingham, which sits in Florence County about 65 miles northwest of Myrtle Beach. When they arrived, the car was still burning, according to summaries of the incident carried by local media.
The Florence County Coroner’s Office was called to the scene. Officials later identified the woman inside as Kinlaw, a resident of nearby Olanta, a small town in eastern South Carolina that is home to fewer than 1,000 people, according to U.S. Census data.
An autopsy was scheduled for the week after the fire. Before those results were available, investigators shared an initial assessment with reporters. Officials said Kinlaw appeared to have been shot, then doused with a liquid and set on fire while still in the vehicle. Full autopsy findings, including a formal cause and manner of death, have not yet been publicly released in available records.
Florence County Sheriff T.J. Joye told WMBF that Kinlaw believed she was traveling to buy a puppy when she went to the rural meeting spot. According to his account, Fleming accompanied her.
“Supposedly, they went there together,” Joye said. “Miss Fleming, she was 19 years of age, a friend of Miss Kinlaw, and they rode there together supposedly to buy a puppy.”
Instead of completing a sale, Kinlaw was shot inside the vehicle, the sheriff said, and her body was then set on fire. Deputies arrived to find the blaze still active.
At this stage, law enforcement has not released public documentation detailing exactly what they believe happened inside the vehicle, who is alleged to have fired any weapon, or how investigators say the fire was started. Those specifics typically appear later in warrants, indictments, or testimony.
Investigators Describe a Retaliation Motive
The case did not remain an isolated homicide investigation for long. Sheriff Joye has publicly linked Kinlaw’s killing to an earlier homicide in another county. That earlier case occurred in Darlington County, roughly 35 miles from where Kinlaw died, according to geographic data for Darlington County.
Speaking with WMBF, Joye said his office believes Kinlaw was targeted because of alleged involvement by her son in that prior killing.
“We believe there was a murder committed in Darlington County, which we made the arrest in Lake City that connects them to that arrest with Darlington County officials,” Joye told the station. “We feel that her son was involved in that in some way, shape, or form, and we feel this is a retaliation to that murder.”
Public reporting does not yet identify the victim, suspects, or case number in the Darlington County homicide reference. It is also not clear from available information whether Kinlaw’s son has been arrested, charged, or formally named as a suspect in that earlier case.
Darlington County authorities have not, in the records reviewed for this article, publicly described how they believe the two cases are connected or what specific evidence supports the retaliation theory. The fuller picture of that link may only become clear if prosecutors file detailed charging documents or present their theory in a future court hearing.
The Defendants and the Evidence Still Out of View
The brief charging descriptions that have been reported so far list only the offenses. Murder. First-degree arson. Possession of a weapon during a violent crime. They do not specify which defendant is alleged to have done what.
Law&Crime, citing the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, reported that Fleming and Thomas were the first to be arrested, followed by Carraway. Officials have not yet released a narrative, affidavit, or incident report that lays out the roles investigators attribute to each person.
Several key questions remain unanswered in publicly available material.
Item 1: How investigators first identified Fleming, Thomas, and Carraway as suspects, including whether tips, surveillance footage, phone records, or forensic evidence played a role.
Item 2: Whether any of the three defendants made statements to law enforcement, and if so, whether prosecutors plan to use those statements in court.
Item 3: What specific actions prosecutors allege were taken in Florence County, and what, if any, charges might be brought in Darlington County related to the earlier homicide mentioned by the sheriff?
Court filings in serious felony cases often answer some of these questions over time. Indictments can outline the basic factual theory. Pretrial motions sometimes reveal how investigators say they built the case. At this point, however, those documents do not appear in the public record that has been reported on by outlets such as Law&Crime and WMBF.
Attorneys for Fleming, Thomas, and Carraway have not been quoted in the coverage reviewed so far. It is not yet publicly known how they intend to respond to the allegations, whether they will seek separate trials, or what defenses they may raise.
A Rural Killing With Wider Implications
The killing took place in Effingham, an unincorporated part of Florence County that, according to public records, has no municipal police department. That means the sheriff’s office serves as the primary law enforcement agency for the area, and coordination with neighboring counties is critical when cases cross jurisdictional lines.
Here, investigators in Florence County are trying to reconstruct a killing on a rural road that they say stems from a separate homicide in Darlington County. If that retaliation theory is correct, prosecutors may eventually have to explain two violent cases to two different sets of jurors, each with different victims and defendants but overlapping evidence and motives.
For now, what is publicly documented is limited. A woman who believed she was traveling to buy a puppy is dead. Her body was found in a vehicle fire that the sheriff’s office quickly labeled a homicide. Three people are jailed on murder and arson charges. Another killing that took place in a neighboring county is said to loom in the background.
Until charging documents, autopsy results, and more detailed investigative records are filed in court or released by officials, the exact path from a planned puppy purchase to an alleged act of retaliatory violence remains only partly visible.
