WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Missing Charlotte woman's body found, Richland Co. man arrested

Missing Charlotte woman's body found, Richland Co. man arrested

By Jordan Sandler - bio | email

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The body of a Charlotte woman who disappeared while in Columbia has been found, and Richland County deputies say they've arrested the man who killed her.

Over the course of the past week, investigators identified 29-year-old Theodore Roosevelt Manning IV as being responsible for the disappearance of Nikki McPhatter. 

Saturday WIS News 10 talked with a man who said he would have never thought his neighbor would be capable of murder.

"It really gives me the chills," says Brenda Barker.

Just two doors down from Barker on Bluff Road in Gadsden, investigators search through the home of an accused murderer.

"I had no idea that this was the guy that practically accused of killing someone," she says.

Authorities charged Manning with the murder of Nikki McPhatter, an employee of US Airways in Charlotte. McPhatter had been missing since she was spotted in Columbia on May 6.

Police said McPhatter had gone to Columbia to visit Manning, who she met online.

WIS obtained surveillance video from May 6, taken at an ATM on Farrow Road. It shows someone attempting to use McPhatter's credit card. Authorities believe manning is either the person using the card, or he's in the car.

Friday in Fairfield County off Peach Road, Richland County deputies found McPhatter's burned-out Honda Accord on a dirt road. They found her body inside the car. Officials don't know how long she had been there.

"We were able to identify witnesses that we believe had vital information that actually led us to the vehicle," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe.

Deputies arrested Manning at his home Thursday night.

While they had never spoken, Barker says she saw Manning talking on his cell phone in the yard on Sunday.

"He looked normal, you know, I'm just talking to a friend on a cell phone," says Barker.

Barker never suspected her clean cut neighbor would be a danger to anyone.

"I'm married, but if I were a single woman, hey this guy I'm about to go up and talk to him, because he looked so normal you know," says Barker.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said the body's condition requires he identify her through DNA or dental records, but indications are the body is McPhatter. He is unable to determine when she died from a gunshot to the head.

"It's a tough scene, it's a remote area, but we do believe that she's been deceased for a while," says Chief Monroe.

Manning now awaits his bond to be set in a general sessions court while family and friends await the results of McPhatter's autopsy.

Previous Stories:

• Friends of missing Charlotte woman look in Columbia
• RCSD joins up with Charlotte law enforcement to find missing woman

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