Columbia man strangled his mother and dumped her body in an SC river, sheriff says
Months after a missing woman’s body was found in a South Carolina river her son was charged with murder, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.
Terry Lee Self Jr., a 37-year-old Columbia resident, is accused of killing his mother, Regina Veronica Arroyo, in December 2023, the sheriff’s department said late Tuesday night in a news release.
Arroyo, a 56-year-old Barnwell resident, was reported missing Nov. 30, the Lexington County Coroner’s Office said last December.
On Dec. 3, a boater found Arroyo’s body in a part of the North Fork Edisto River near Wagner Highway in the Leesville area of Lexington County, according to Lexington County officials. That is more than 30 miles from Barnwell.
Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher immediately said Arroyo’s death was a homicide.
After the body was recovered, deputies “confirmed (Self) and his mother were at the suspect’s house and left there together after an argument,” Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said in the release.
Information about the argument was not available.
“The evidence in the case indicates the suspect used a ligature to strangle Ms. Arroyo,” Koon said. “After he killed Ms. Arroyo, Self then dumped her body in the river and left.”
Self is being held in Richland County at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on unrelated drug possession and probation violation charges, jail records show. He was brought before a Lexington County judge who denied him bond on the murder charge, according to the sheriff’s department. He is currently listed on the Richland County jail’s inmate roster.
“Detectives have been working on this case for seven months zeroing in on the person responsible Ms. Arroyo’s death,” Koon said. “We hope to give her family members and loved ones some sense of closure.”
