A father and daughter found dead in South Carolina after going missing a week ago died of hypothermia.
Calhoun County Corner Donnie Porth told WIS that autopsy results for 6-year-old Michelle Murph and her father, 42-year-old Jason Murph, were inconclusive, but he said weather conditions while the pair were missing and that they had no suspicious injuries led him to that determination.
According to weather reports, the area saw rain, heavy at times, with strong wind gusts and temperatures dropping into the lower 40s overnight on Sunday.
“Because of the elements,” Porth told WLTX. “It wasn’t below freezing by no means, but because of the wind and the rain, they become extremely cold, and I think it became an urgency for them to try to find help and try to find shelter.”
The little girl and her father were reported missing on Sunday in Richland County and were found dead near their crashed truck in Calhoun County on Monday, as CrimeOnline reported.
The severely damaged and partially burned truck was found in a field off Lavender Lane, and K-9s found the victims’ bodies 30 to 50 yards away, officials said, WIS reported.
Earlier this week, an incident report said that on the night the two disappeared, Jason Murph’s wife got a phone call from a person whose name was redacted who said that Murph had “slid off the road” and wrecked. The wife said the person hung up the phone without saying where he was and did not pick up again. She said she could hear the child yelling in the background.
The wife said she sent text messages to Murph’s phone asking him to call 911, but he never responded. A deputy tried to locate Murph’s truck but couldn’t find it and checked hospitals to no avail.
The report said that Murph and his wife are estranged and that Michelle had been staying with her dad for the past two weeks. Murph’s wife said she spoke with him that morning, and he said they were going to a library and then to Orangeburg to visit his mother. They never arrived.
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[Featured image: Michelle and Jason Murph/family handout]
