It’s sad to say, but many people deserve the death penalty. And some people deserve to live. A South Carolina man may have recently received precisely what he deserved.
A big dose of karma appears to have gotten the best of this poor chap, according to a report by local ABC affiliate WJBF. Law enforcement was summoned to a home on Tanglewood Drive in Trenton, South Carolina. When officers came, they located a man who was unresponsive.
The man had already died. Joseph Anthony McKinnon, a 60-year-old man, was the deceased. McKinnon was discovered dead on his lawn, apparently from cardiac arrest. The coroner agreed, stating that he died of natural causes, most likely a heart attack.
So, what’s the karma aspect of an old man keeling over in his backyard from a heart attack? The notion that he left this earth via a not-so-uncommon act of God is only part of the story. When police discovered what McKinnon was doing, “act of God” took on a whole new meaning.
While investigating McKinnon’s untimely death, police noticed a rather suspicious thing. There in the backyard was a freshly dug pit. Certainly, to their surprise, police found a second body. The second dead body was 65-year-old Patricia Ruth Dent.
Evidently, Dent lived at the same address with McKinnon. The coroner immediately suspected foul play. The coroner was correct. Dent had been strangled to death. Quite obviously, unless McKinnon was cleaning up a hired assassin’s handy work, he was trying to bury his victim.
After the full autopsies were revealed, the conclusion was finalized. Dent was strangled to death and McKinnon, apparently stressed from the laborious task of burying his victim, succumbed to cardiac arrest. While not married, this story gives new meaning to “until death do us part.”
Dent’s twin sister, Pamela Briggs, confirmed that Dent and McKinnon lived together as boyfriend and girlfriend. Briggs was shocked by her sister’s death, saying, “I would say a nightmare, and I want to wake up, and it’s a dream. I know it’s not.”
The investigation confirmed that McKinnon most likely killed Dent inside the home. Investigators believe that he then, “bound her and wrapped her in trash bags before putting her in a pit he dug.” While finishing the job, it seems McKinnon met his untimely demise.
Or was it “untimely”? Sometimes justice doesn’t always work out for the best. However, sometimes lady karma takes over. As J. R. R. Tolkien put it, “Many that live deserve death.” Joe McKinnon deserved justice. It seems this time that “justice” came from a “higher source!”