Authorities say that a man in South Carolina choked his girlfriend to death. He then died as he was burying her in their yard.

The Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office stated that 60-year-old Joseph McKinnon killed 65-year-old Patricia Dent inside a residence in Trenton. Police had gotten a call regarding “an unresponsive male lying in his yard.”

When responders got to the scene, they discovered McKinnon’s body. Medical crews arrived on the scene and attempted to revive him.

While investigating, authorities discovered another body in a pit that had just been dug up. The person was identified as Dent, who resided with McKinnon, officials say.

Detectives believe that McKinnon had a heart attack as he was covering the pit and that Dent was killed in the residence. After an autopsy was performed, it was found that Dent died after being strangled.

“Mr. McKinnon then bound her and wrapped her in trash bags before putting her in the previously dug pit,” a sheriff said.

Dent never appeared at work at Mount Vintage golf course the day that she was killed. Calls and text messages to her had gone unanswered, as well.

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