NEWBERRY, S.C. — Richard Lewis Cribb is charged with murder in the death of Edwin Geer, the 87-year-old Chappells retiree deputies later located in a grave in neighboring Laurens County, the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.
Sheriff Lee Foster said Geer, who lived alone in a Lake Greenwood community, was last seen Oct. 6. A neighbor called deputies Oct. 17 after noticing the mail stacking up and no activity at the house. His pickup was also gone.
Investigators say Cribb began running up charges on the older man’s credit cards and driving his vehicles that same day in early October. He sold some of Geer’s things at pawn shops in Greenwood County, then went to Horry County and kept using the cards there until he was tracked down and jailed.
Detectives then found that Cribb had rented a mini excavator and moved it to a lot on Broadway Lane in Laurens County. Deputies saw freshly turned dirt there, and Geer’s truck sat a few miles off on Whitten Road. Crews later dug up the body from a grave roughly four feet deep behind a mobile home.
After going over the evidence with the 8th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, the sheriff’s office charged Cribb with murder, first-degree burglary and armed robbery. Investigators think the 87-year-old died around the time he was last seen.
Section: More Newberry SC crime news
Filed under: Newberry SC Crime News
