Law&Crime Sidebar - Murdered Mom’s Eerie Text Predicted Her Killer’s Next Move

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

A South Carolina man is headed to prison for decades after shooting his girlfriend, a mother of three children, and setting her car on fire with her body inside. The horrific crime left Bamberg County reeling, but a chilling text message from the victim, Megan Bodiford, to her friend provided a crucial early clue. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the critical evidence the killer left behind and discusses the investigation and sentencing with criminal defense and civil rights attorney Tyler Bailey.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.ca. That's audible.ca slash Wondery. A South Carolina man will be spending decades in prison after he shot his girlfriend, put her body in her own car, and then set that. car on fire. It is a horrific crime, and it is one that left Bamberg County reeling as her three young children and other family members try to figure out how to go on without her. We are going

to break down the critical evidence this killer left behind, how a disturbing message she sent to her friend about his intentions before her death may have played into all this, and the biggest question of all, could this have been prevented? Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Real quick, you know why we can cover a story like this in depth? It's because of our sponsor, Morgan and Morgan. I'm talking America's largest personal injury law firm. I'm talking a firm with over 1,000 attorneys who have recovered $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients.

In fact, in the past few months alone, a client in Florida received $12 million when insurance offered just $350,000. In Pennsylvania, another client was awarded $26 million. That is, 40 times the insurer's offer. And Morgan and Morgan, they make it easy to fight for what you deserve. You can even start a claim from your phone. So if you're injured, you can start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. You can click the link below or you can scan the QR code on screen. 25-year-old Megan Botaford lived in Denmark, South Carolina with her three children.

They were seven, four, and just four months old when she suddenly disappeared last year. This is according to a GoFundMe that was paying tribute to her. Now, Denmark is a small city. It's not far from South Carolina, the South Carolina-Georgia line. Its police department is small as well. So when Megan vanished, the Bamberg County Sheriff's Office and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, also known as SLED, they got in. They started helping out.

And it was how authorities were notified that Megan was even missing. That is really chilling. Because according to WRDW, Megan sent a message to a friend saying that if she hadn't heard from her In the next half hour, she needed to contact police because she was apparently afraid that her boyfriend and father of at least one of her children, Jarrett Davis, was going to kill her. That's the allegation. And that is exactly what law enforcement claims happened. So to talk about the ins and outs of this investigation, I want to welcome back on to here on Sidebar, Criminal Defense Attorney, Civil Rights Attorney, Tyler Bailey. Tyler, thank you so much for taking the time.

It's good to see you. This gives you goosebumps, right? A woman apparently so afraid of her own boyfriend, the violence that he might commit against her, that she sends this preparation text, this warning text to another, and we'll never know how serious she was being, but whether it was some kind of joke or, I don't know, a deadly premonition. It certainly gives law enforcement indication right from the beginning that something wasn't right here. Have you seen anything like this before? You know, unfortunately, with domestic violence and cases like this,

they're always always so heartbreaking. And just thinking about the fear that she had in those last moments of her losing her life, her children now growing up without their mother, a child as young as four months, and to know that I believe this situation probably could have been avoided, she clearly knew that he was dangerous. And that's why she texts her friend. And I don't think the text that she sent was a joke. I think that she was really fearful for her life.

And tragically, she was murdered and lost it. From a legal point of view, can the message like that come into evidence at trial? You know, there's hearsay rules, but there's also specific rules when it comes to the statements from a victim. Could that come in and be used to prove that she's identifying her alleged killer? I think it can come in under a hearsay exception. At least the prosecution will certainly try to. whether from other conversations that Megan had with this individual she sent the text to, maybe a dying declaration, there's some exceptions that could allow, I believe, this statement

to come into evidence in this situation. And from what I know about this case and what I've seen, there's a lot of other things that point towards the defendant here in his history with the victim. So I do see some way that this information gets into evidence. And even if it doesn't, the risk of it getting into evidence is strong enough. Well, I will let everybody know there is a conclusion to this case that we're going to get to. But I was kind of, you know, I was talking theoretically about how it might happen. But let's talk about what happens here.

So Megan was last heard from on Thursday, April 24th, 20204th, just before 10 p.m. And she was reportedly last seen in Denmark wearing a gray t-shirt and these Batman pajama bottoms. Megan's cousin Heather told WRDW, quote, her friends have been sending me messages where Megan is basically scared for her life. She said that her child's father had a gun and if nobody contacted her in the next 30 minutes to send the police. Now, unfortunately, according to an affidavit that was reviewed by the outlet, the friend that she had warned about possible violence didn't end up notifying the police until the next day. And that's Saturday, the sheriff's office and sled went to the home where Megan and Davis lived,

and WIS TV reports that cell phone location data led them there, although there's mixed reporting on whether it was Davis's cell data or Magins, but the officers wanted to perform a wellness check. And it turns out Davis had an active domestic violence arrest warrant out of nearby Barnwell County. This is according to independent media outlet Fitz News. Now, WRDW reports that another warrant accused Davis of having a shotgun, despite being a convicted felon who isn't allowed to possess weapons. He was also reportedly on probation.

So, Tyler, let's stop right there. If there was a warrant for Davis's arrest already, why didn't the police just pick him up well before he did anything to Megan? He should have been picked up. You know, the thing with warrants, especially if you're looking at rural areas and places in South Carolina, unless he is stopped by an officer and they run his information through the system, they may not know about the warrant. I mean, he should not have been out on a.

active arrest warrant for domestic violence. He certainly should not have been around a firearm. There should probably be questions as to whether he was even out on bond at all or without having GPS monitoring on for a reason just like this. So unfortunately, a ball was dropped here, and that ball being dropped tragically was a likely a strong contributing factor to make a losing her life. So on law enforcement get to the home, an incident report, viewed by local media outlets says that Megan's four-month-old baby was inside the house

alone, but thankfully unharmed. Deputies say they spotted Davis coming out of a shed in the backyard, so they took him into custody on the warrant, and there was no sign of Megan. So what happens? Law enforcement, they get a search warrant so they could go through the home, and according to WISTV, investigators seized an iPhone 11 pro, multiple security cameras, an HP laptop, a baby monitor, a deer camera, the warrant reportedly read, it is your affiant's belief that evidence that may result locating Megan Botaford may be stored on these items. So Tyler, explain to me. You're talking about a potential domestic violence case. You're talking about a potential murder case, right? Why are investigators specifically looking for those electronics? What are they

looking for on those electronics to be more specific? Looking for communications between Megan and the defendant here. They're possibly also looking for any video footage that could show him leaving the residents with some supplies or weapons that may have been used in the commission of the crime. There's some information about where her body's found and how the vehicle was that could show him leaving the house

with some of these things as well. So all electronic evidence that could show videos or also location is going to be very important for the prosecution in their case. And by the way, isn't this a sign of why you have to act so quickly because in cases in general, you could have a suspect delete that information, delete that digital evidence. So to act quickly as possible, not only to try to save someone's life, of course, but if you're talking about preservation of evidence, how important

is it to get there immediately? Yes, it's critical. I mean, deleting your electronic footprint is very hard in today's world with the cloud and other things, but getting rid of the devices is more than likely. They could be burned. They can be destroyed. They can be given to a close confident who's actually accomplished in the crime if they take this evidence. So it's very important for the investigators and the prosecution to get their hands off on anything that's going to help prove their case, especially in a situation where you have a defendant who's trying to get rid of evidence and escape responsibility. So five days after Megan last contact at anyone, the Bamberg County Sheriff saw

They called Slet, asking them to help investigate a burned car that had been found outside of Denmark city limits. It was a dark gray Ford Explorer, the same make and model that Megan drove. This SUV was off a dirt road. It was near some power poles. It's in a rural part of the county. And only around two miles from her last known location. This is according to reporting from WIS TV. Now, Deputy said that it appeared that human remains were inside of that car, but it would take days to sort out an ID

using things like DNA and dental records. And when Megan's remains were officially identified, that is when prosecutors charged Davis with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, unlawful possession of a firearm, arson, and desecration of human remains. And now we know that Davis is headed to prison. On November 10th, Davis pleaded guilty to four counts, and the judge sentenced him to 43 years in prison. in for murder. The other three counts, the possession of a weapon during a violent crime, third degree arson, desecration, or destruction of human remains. That adds another 30 years,

but the judge decided that those sentences would run concurrently, meaning at the same time as the punishment for murder. Tyler, I have a lot of questions here. First of all, why plead guilty? Probably to escape the death penalty. This was a case where the death penalty probably could have been imposed because there's some aggravating factors with the murder. And then also, with him committing a murder and multiple crimes, there was a stronger likelihood of consecutive sentences versus concurrent sentences. So all in all, I mean, he's gonna spend nearly 50 years

behind jail and the only incentive to plead guilty to charge like this from the defense or the defendant would it be to possibly save his life because this seems to be a situation where you don't see anything regarding if he's competent to stand trial. He certainly was competent enough to try to destroy evidence. And these aggravating factors probably would have resulted in a death penalty case where you have a young mother of four children.

This would be something that the jury and the judge probably would have led to imposing that the ultimate penalty if he was convicted. 43 years. It's a very, very long time. But I did wonder when I was looking into this, why run those other sentences with the murder sentence? I run it concurrently and not consecutively, one after the other, which would essentially be life in prison. Yeah, the only thing I could reason, I think the judge allowed that to be the case was because he, by pleading guilty, admitted to his wrongdoing, accepted responsibility. So the court seemed to be a little more lenient with him as opposed if he went to trial, you know, stood there demanding his saying he was innocent. and then the judge having to impose a sentence that takes all that into consideration. There could have been some discussions with the defense and the prosecution regarding

recommendations or negotiated sentence. I highly doubt that was negotiated. The state probably said they had no objection to a penalty that does not run consecutively given the defendant pleading guilty and saving, I guess, the state, the time, effort, and resources in prosecuting this case and to a jury having a judge imposed a penalty. I want your opinion on something that we ask in a lot of these cases, was this preventable? Okay? Why do I say that?

So since Megan's murder, there is more information that has come out about her friends and family's efforts to alert law enforcement to this abuse that she was enduring. Now, the question is, if officers were planning any sort of intervention is the argument they were just too late because Fitznews spoke with a friend of Megan's who said that they reached out to Davis's probation officer after seeing bruises on Megan and according to Fitz News one message said he is going to end up killing his baby mama he does a number on Megan every day now it's becoming a daily occurrence and she's already had the law called multiple times but what he does is he goes neck deep into the woods before they arrive there he has a whole new warrant

for that. He also chokes the bleep out of her, and he'll do it while she's holding the baby. Now, the probation officer reportedly told this friend that Megan should call 911 and then put the phone down so that the dispatcher can hear what's going on. You know, maybe Davis wouldn't notice. And the friend allegedly replied, I told her the exact same thing, but I doubt she'll try to call again. She gave up from what it looks like. The friend also told the probation officer apparently that Davis had a gun, but Fitz News reports that the officer didn't reply to that message. Two days after Megan was last seen, the friend texted one last disturbing message to this probation officer, quote, hey, we think Megan is dead. Now, Tyler, is this dropping the ball on

the part of the probation officer? Is this dropping the ball on part of law enforcement? Or is there really only so much that can be done here? A lot of my work is representing a lot of time. victims in civil rights cases dealing with the government. And I believe this is a situation where there is some systemic system failure in protecting victims of domestic violence because they're difficult cases and more could have been done. You know, a lot of times you may have a victim, Megan's case. I don't know the extent of the relationship she had with the defendant. But sometimes they may not show up to testify.

Sometimes, you know, they may have children together. Maybe they don't want to see the defendant. defendant go to jail and it's really up to the state to step in and see what type of risk of harm that's there. And in this situation, you have a probation officer who clearly is hearing that the defendant here in the situation is violent in terms of probation. He's being violent. You have friends who have called probation, dispatch records. You have an active warrant for domestic violence for his arrest, which would have required him to be in jail and his bond to be revoked. All these things and protections were put in place so that defendants don't commit further crimes while

out on bond and victims are safe. And so if you look at all these things here, all the warning signs, all the communication and the acknowledgement that her life was in danger by Megan, it certainly seems that it could have been prevented. And I hope one thing that comes out of this is a lesson for different prosecuting agencies that these crimes are very serious, domestic violence crimes to be very serious. There needs to be safeguards in place to protect victims. It's really up to the state to step in. And when there's a defendant who's clearly violating terms of their bond and there's a victim who can lose their life, it's incumbent on state agencies and do their part. Just to be clear, though, do you know if there's a legal obligation on the part of a probation

officer to step in like something or just say, hey, listen, I can the only thing I can do is recommend she call 911. Well, I believe that the probation. officers should have made some further contact from there. They could have looked into the terms of probation. I do think it was negligent on the part of the probation officer not to do that. Now, I'm not involved in this case or anything, but common sense says that if you hear something like this, not just calling 911, you're an officer of the court to, you wear a badge, you have a gun. You have power to have people's probation revote, so therefore they should do something about it, I believe. It's a really sad case. It's a really sad case for

from a number of different angles. And we go back to the question, you know, could this have been prevented in some way? I don't know. Tyler Bailey, thank you so much. Appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.