3-year-old boy dies from brutal beating

By Charmaine Smith
Anderson Independent-Mail
6/29/2002

A 24-year-old Anderson man was charged with murder Friday in death of a 3-year-old boy who was found severely beaten and dumped in a wooded area about 300 yards from his home earlier in the day.

Reco Arlando Hill of 110 Springhill Road was charged with murder late Friday, hours after Keyondez Draqua Turman was found dead from severe trauma to the head, chest and back in a wooded area about 300 yards from the home, Anderson County sheriff’s Capt. Dale McCard said.

Capt. McCard said the boy was killed inside the 110 Springhill Road home, where he lived with his mother and Mr. Hill, her boyfriend.

Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said Keyondez was severely beaten between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., dumped in the wooded area and partially covered with leaves. He and Capt. McCard would not elude to what weapon was used in the homicide.

Capt. McCard said Mr. Hill had a prior criminal history, of which several charges were “serious offenses.” And late Friday, investigator Kevin Matheson walked Mr. Hill, who wore a solemn expression, out of the Sheriff’s Office and to a patrol car. He was transported to the Anderson County Detention Center.

The captain said investigators were not aware of any previous reports of abuse on the 3-year-old.

“There are still some things we will need to look into,” Capt. McCard said.

Mr. Matheson said deputies received a call at 10:40 a.m. that the boy was missing. When they responded to the scene, a search was started immediately with about 20 officers. The Anderson County sheriff’s helicopter surveyed the neighborhood, located just off of U.S. 29 South, from the air while deputies searched around the house on foot.

One of Keyondez’s neighbors, Wanda Hall of 107 Springhill Road, said she first heard the boy was missing around 8:30 a.m. when Mr. Hill knocked on her door. She said the boyfriend was in a panic because he said he woke to find Keyondez missing.

She said she knew Keyondez, or “Kikki” as she called him, because he would walk across the street and play with her 5-year-old son, Brick Hall.

“We thought he had just wandered off. We looked under the beds, in the closets… ,” she said, standing in the front yard of her home Friday afternoon, still visibly shaken. “I’m scared to death. That was my son’s best friend.”

At the time, Keyondez’s mother was not at home, she said. When she returned home at around 10:30 a.m., she became hysterical, Ms. Hall said. Officers said Friday that they did not know where the mother was at the time of her son’s death.

Anderson County dispatchers said Ms. Turman called 911 to report her son missing. Members of the Anderson County Fire Department and the Anderson City Technical Rescue Team were called to the scene around 12:20 p.m. to join in the search, rescue team coordinator Dale Horne said.

At 1 p.m., the searchers practically walked right over Keyondez, Mr. Horne said.

By that point, other residents in the area were watching from their front yards and porches to find out what was going on. The news of the Keyondez’s death shocked residents who said the area was always quiet.

Ann Brooks of 106 Springhill Road said she heard her dog barking early Friday morning but could not hear anything coming from the boy’s house that was just down the street, two houses away.

“I wish to God I could’ve heard something that would’ve saved his life,” Ms. Brooks said.

Ms. Hall’s son, Brick, ran around Friday afternoon, seemingly unaware of what was going on. He said he and his friend, “Kikki,” played together a lot.

“He liked to play hide-and-go seek,” Brick said.

Ms. Hall said Keyondez came to her house for the first time in August, after he somehow wandered out of his house across the street. She said he just showed up on her front steps, completely naked with nothing but his mother’s bedroom slippers on and a pair of car keys in his hand.