On January 22, 2021, firefighters responding to a house fire on American Avenue in Hopkins, South Carolina, found 42-year-old Brandon Burden dead inside his burning home. Authorities initially thought the blaze might have started by a kerosene heater, but an autopsy showed Burden had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The Richland County Fire Marshal later determined the fire was intentionally set and the case was treated as a homicide.

Investigators examined Burden’s phone records and found calls to and from an unknown number in the early morning hours. A neighbor’s surveillance camera captured a car arriving at about 2:40 a.m.; roughly an hour later the video shows a muzzle flash and the same vehicle leaving. The unknown number was traced to 20-year-old Jamira Davis, who was in a long-distance relationship with Burden and whose mother had been in a long-term relationship with him.

Davis was questioned on February 1, 2021. After giving conflicting accounts, she admitted to shooting Burden and claimed self-defense; her statements did not match the evidence and she was arrested and charged with murder. Did anyone in the Hopkins area see that car or the movements around American Avenue that night?