In November 2019, Meagan Jackson’s world seemed to fall apart. After 16 years, her relationship ended, and in the same month, her mother, who had planned to cosign on a home for her in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, tragically passed away.
Her half-brother, Shawn Harju, later said that things took a turn for the worse after their mother’s death. “My sister, her demeanor kind of changed,” he told the Post and Courier. “She basically ended up homeless.”
Just a year later, Greg Rice, Jackson’s ex and the father of her four children, went missing—and was later found dead. What followed was a shocking series of events that led to Jackson and her co-worker, Christopher Dontell, being charged with his murder.
The tangled story began with an affair. Dontell, a 41-year-old deputy coroner in Horry County and a married father of two, started a relationship with Jackson, 39. The two had met through work—Jackson was subcontracted as a body transporter, removing corpses from death scenes.
In November 2019, Jackson and Rice’s 16-year relationship officially ended, though they stayed in touch because of their children. Then, on October 5, 2020, Jackson reported Rice missing. She told police he was last seen three days earlier near Flintlake Drive, just outside Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Search teams scoured the area, but it wasn’t until November 8, 2020, that Rice’s body was found in the Little Pee Dee River. He had been shot five times, and police said someone had gone to great lengths to hide the body. It had been wrapped in a tarp, tied with zip ties, and weighed down with a cinder block secured by a ratchet strap.
The investigation quickly turned toward Dontell and Jackson. Detectives discovered surveillance footage from a Lowe’s store, where Dontell was seen buying cement blocks, a tarp, and zip ties the day after Rice was last seen alive. On November 11, 2020, both Dontell and Jackson were arrested.
Police uncovered more disturbing details. Jackson was pregnant with Dontell’s child, and authorities later found evidence of child abuse at her home. Jackson allegedly locked her children in a room where they had to urinate in jars. The doors had their electronic locks disabled, and the windows were padlocked, according to arrest warrants.
The charges against Jackson and Dontell piled up: two counts of murder, two counts of criminal conspiracy, four counts of child neglect, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and accessory after the fact in Rice’s death.
Both suspects were released on bond before their trials but quickly ended up back in jail after violating their release terms by secretly contacting each other. Prosecutors revealed that Dontell had met with Jackson even though she was under house arrest.
As Dontell’s trial approached, he made a surprising move. Moments before opening statements were set to begin, he decided to plead guilty to lesser charges: criminal conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact of murder. In exchange for a reduced sentence and the dropping of the murder charge, Dontell agreed to testify against Jackson.
During court proceedings, prosecutors revealed chilling details about their plot. According to them, Jackson told Dontell, “It was him or you. I need you to go get him out of the cooler at the Myrtle Beach Funeral Home and get rid of him.”
For his part, Dontell’s lawyer said he had always wanted to admit to his role as an accessory but insisted he wasn’t guilty of murder. Dontell now faces up to 20 years in prison for his charges, with additional trials pending.
Jackson’s trial, originally scheduled for this week, was delayed and is now set to begin on February 10, 2025. Meanwhile, the haunting details of this case continue to shock the community in Conway, South Carolina, and beyond.
