A South Carolina woman who believed she was meeting a seller to buy a puppy was instead ambushed, fatally shot, and set on fire in a horrifying attack that authorities say may have been an act of retaliation.
40-year-old Dana Marie Kinlaw was killed on January 22, 2026, along a faraway stretch of Atlantic Road near Springbranch Road in Effingham. Investigators allege that Kinlaw was lured to the area under pretenses by three suspects.
The area was secluded and is situated approximately 95 miles east of Columbia, according to the Florence County Sheriff’s Office. One of the suspects allegedly accompanied Kinlaw to the spot before killing her inside a vehicle.
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Police were informed about the attack on January 22 at 5:45 p.m., as per Law&Crime. The victim was reportedly a resident of an area called Olanta.
As per The New York Post, the three suspects in the case are Iryanna Jarissa Fleming, 19, Daquinn Taheen Thomas, 31, and Nikko Christopher Carraway.
“Supposedly, they went there together,” the sheriff said of Kinlaw and Fleming, the 19-year-old who was possibly the victim’s friend. “And they rode there together, supposedly to buy a puppy.”
The suspects allegedly doused her body with a flammable liquid and set it on fire inside her vehicle. Deputies responding to reports of a car fire discovered the vehicle still burning with Kinlaw’s body inside.
While Fleming and 31-year-old Daquinn Taheen Thomas were arrested on the day Dana Marie Kinlaw died, the third one, 31-year-old Nikko Christopher Carraway, was arrested on January 28, 2025.
All three suspects are charged with murder, arson, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. They remain in South Carolina police custody at the Florence County Detention Center without bail.
Consequently, Florence County Coroner Keith Von Lutcken confirmed that Kinlaw’s body has been sent for autopsy to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and the department is eagerly waiting for the results.
Three brutes ambushed a South Carolina woman who thought she was meeting them to buy a puppy. They shot her to death, set her body on fire, and left her burning inside her car.
Always the same pattern, isn’t it? pic.twitter.com/Adr4EXE8qi
— Jared Taylor (@RealJarTaylor) January 29, 2026
Authorities believe the killing was connected to a separate homicide that occurred approximately 35 miles away in Darlington County. Meanwhile, old court records show both the suspects, Thomas and Carraway, have extensive criminal histories in Florence County dating back more than a decade.
Moreover, Daquinn Taheen Thomas previously faced multiple attempted murder and armed robbery charges and was sentenced to nine months in prison in March 2025 for unlawful possession of a firearm.
It’s sad that in the last couple of months, several cases of murder, robbery and assault have been reported from the state of South Carolina as well as North Carolina.
At the beginning of the year, 73-year-old Rayfield Ruffin and his 67-year-old wife, Frances Ruffin, were found inside their North Carolina home with multiple stab wounds.
According to sources, investigators arrested the couple’s grandson, 34-year-old Martinez Corvell Ruffin, in connection with the deaths. The suspect was allegedly mentally unwell while he was living with his grandparents.
“I can say there has been significant history with Mr. Ruffin,” Sheriff Paula Dance, the officer in charge of the case, said.
