Sumter coroner says mother killed at Lantana Apartments died from blunt-force injuries with sharp object
As law enforcement continued to search for a 5-year-old Sumter girl who disappeared Monday evening, the Sumter coroner said Thursday her mother died from blunt force, sharp injuries to the head and neck.
Sharee Bradley, 29, was reportedly attacked in her home at Lantana Apartments on Monday evening and was found dead by a family member hours later, according to Sumter Police Department.
Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker told The Sumter Item the preliminary cause of death is all the information that the coroner’s office will release as of press time. The investigation is continuing.
Daunte Maurice Johnson, 28, was arrested and charged with murder Monday in Bradley's death. According to the police department, he told officers he killed both Bradley and her daughter, Nevaeh Lashy Adams, and disposed of Nevaeh's body in a Dumpster on the apartment complex property.
The confession set off a search of Sumter and Richland county landfills early Tuesday for the girl's body, as the Dumpsters had been emptied and replaced before Nevaeh's mother was discovered dead. The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, Richland County Sheriff’s Office and Sumter’s sanitation department have been helping Sumter police in the search through tons of trash at the landfills. On Wednesday, police were also searching the grounds of Lantana Apartments and the immediate area by ground and air.
Police said they think the girl was killed about the same time as her mother, but family and friends who have set up a memorial to the pair are hopeful that Nevaeh will be found alive. A poster pleading for information about her whereabouts was posted in the area earlier in the week.
There has been no motive released in Bradley's killing, and Sumter County Magistrate Judge Larry Blanding denied bond for Johnson, who remains at Sumter County Sheriff's Office Detention Center.