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DNA links inmate to double homicide, home invasion

By Meghan Miller - bio | email

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - DNA samples have linked a Tennessee inmate to a 2005 double homicide and 2006 home invasion in Horry County, according to local officials Wednesday.

Detectives with the Horry County Police Department were informed that DNA samples collected at the two separate crime scenes matched that of an inmate at the Northeast Correctional Complex in Mountain City, TN. 

The inmate, identified as Bruce Antwain Hill, 24, will now be charged in connection to both crimes.

Sgt. Robert Kegler, spokesman for the Horry County Police Department, says emergency crews responded to a double homicide at 6303 Highway 90 in Conway on April 12, 2005.  Upon a thorough investigation, officials arrested one suspect, identified as Richard Gagnon, 35, in connection to the deaths.

Gagnon was later tried and convicted for murdering Diane and Charles Parker, Sr., receiving a life sentence.  DNA was collected from the scene and turned into the State Law Enforcement Division for future help in identifying a second suspect.

Diane Parker, according to the Associated Press, was the mother of Gagnon's girlfriend.

Officials were able to compare DNA from the 2005 double homicide with DNA left on a rubber glove that was found during an investigation of a 2006 home invasion in Longs.  The DNA, Kegler says, was also sent to SLED for future comparison.

Hill is expected to be brought back to Horry County to serve time for his part in the double homicide and home invasion after he is finished the five years left in his sentence in Tennessee.

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