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A septuagenarian South Carolina man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the 2019 murder-by-strangulation of a young North Carolina woman, prosecutors in the Palmetto State say.
Kenneth “K.C.” Henry Eastwood, 72, was sentenced to life in prison by Circuit Court at-large Judge Maite Murphy on Monday, according to the First Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
“I would like to thank the jury for their service and this verdict that holds Mr. Eastwood accountable for his monstrous crime,” Deputy Solicitor Tommy Scott said in a press release. “While there were several delays that were out of our control in bringing this case to trial, we hope this verdict brings some closure to the victim’s family.”
Cara Hodges hailed from Asheboro — roughly three hours due north of her killer’s Eutawville residence across the state line. She was only 34 years old when she was strangled to death by a man she barely knew.
Evidence during the trial showed the victim was visiting her father, who has since passed away, in the tiny town of just over 300 in late 2019.
On Dec. 8, 2019, Hodges met Eastwood at the Fish Tales bar on Old Number Six Highway. Early the next morning, she was dead.
Witnesses would later tell law enforcement the two had been seen drinking together at the bar and that Hodges left with Eastwood that night. Two days later, the woman’s father reported her missing. Two days after that, her naked body was found in the woods along County Line Road. A pathologist determined she had been strangled to death.
On Dec. 13, 2019, Eastwood was interviewed by law enforcement. During that initial interview, he disclaimed any responsibility for the crime or any knowledge about what happened to the mother of three.
The next morning, however, while speaking with his manager at the IGA grocery store where he worked, Eastwood told the truth.
A courtroom report by The Times & Democrat takes stock of the conversation — as relayed by manager Brian Lauder in his testimony before the jury in Eastwood’s long-delayed murder trial.
“When he walked in, he said, ‘I won’t be in today and I probably won’t be back,”” the manager said. Then, he asked why that was.
Eastwood replied: “Yesterday, Orangeburg County picked me up and did an investigation.”
Next, Lauder asked why there would be an investigation that concerned the grocery store stocker.
At first, the replies were cryptic.
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“I did it,” the killer confessed.
“Did what?” Lauder pressed.
“I killed and strangled her,” Eastwood replied.
“Why?” Lauder said he asked.
“Because she wouldn’t leave me alone,” the since-condemned man replied.
Lauder explained that Eastwood went on to muse that authorities would catch up with him as soon as they finished DNA testing. Then, he said, he would confess formally. Lauder said he told the killer to confess immediately and turn himself in. After Eastwood turned and left the store, the manager called the sheriff’s office.
Eastwood was arrested for murder and interviewed on camera later that same day. Portions of the video were played for jurors to see.
In the footage, Eastwood says: “I choked her. I used an electrical cord. I choked her too much, I guess. She died.”
Later, he said the woman’s clothes were already off when she died but that after the murder he “just panicked” and “put her down somewhere” after moving her body via the trunk of his car.
Hodges, it turned out, had wanted a ride back to the Tarheel State, Eastwood told law enforcement. She had arrived in South Carolina by bus — a ride that took 12 hours instead of the three-hour drive by car. Eastwood said he would take her home the next day.
Eventually, the killer said, he was trying to sleep when Hodges woke him up and asked him to go somewhere, according to the video shown in court. He said the woman kept waking him up.
Soon enough, Hodges was dead.
Law enforcement said that DNA evidence did, in fact, later corroborate the killer’s filmed confession.
“All of that for a moment of rage,” Eastwood told investigators on the video. “If I could take it all back, I would.”
