MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (TCN) — A 56-year-old man has been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for killing his girlfriend in 2022.
The Myrtle Beach Police Department announced that in May 2022, 51-year-old Penni Whiteside’s brother said he had not seen his sister since January of that year. At the time, she was living with her boyfriend, Sheridan Fogle.
Investigators spoke to neighbors and learned that her remains might have been buried in the yard under a fire pit. Law & Crime reports Fogle would become “territorial” around the fire pit area and said he had buried something there whenever people approached it.
On June 12, 2024, a search warrant was obtained for the property. Whiteside’s remains were found and her death was investigated as a homicide, per police. Law & Crime reports Whiteside had been strangled and her remains were found in a hope chest, a box Whiteside’s grandfather had custom-built for her as a keepsake when she was a child.
Sheridan was arrested and charged with murder in connection with her death on Aug. 29, 2024. Police called it a “senseless crime of violence.”
Law & Crime reports Fogle testified in his own defense and said Whiteside came at him with a knife. During cross-examination, prosecutor Nancy Livesay said Fogle had gotten married and moved to a new community “while Penni was face-down in that box.”
In the year before Whiteside went missing, police had responded to Fogle and Whiteside’s home for domestic violence incidents; Fogle allegedly punched her in the chest, causing her to fall, and in another incident, he allegedly stole her debit and credit cards, per Law & Crime.
WMBF reports a jury found Fogle guilty of murder after less than an hour of deliberating. He was sentenced on Oct. 29 to life in prison. Whiteside’s son, Hunter Smith, said, “It’s just been disbelief, trying to come to terms with it, because, you know, every little thing that happens in your life, you want to call your mom and tell her, and you can’t, so you just have to … just keep on keeping on.”
In a press release from the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, Assistant Solicitor Jonathan Rogers said of the sentence, “Sheridan Fogle has a history of violent crimes towards women, including assault for strangling but not killing his first wife and domestic violence involving Penni. I am pleased that in the South Carolina Department of Corrections he will no longer have the opportunity to assault a woman. I hope this sentence can finally bring some closure to Penni’s family.”
Whiteside’s 2024 obituary reads, “After being missing for over two years, her family can begin to find peace.”
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