Stephen Skinner

On a sunny autumn day in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a 34-year-old man from Columbia named Stephen Robert Skinner was killed. It was Saturday, October 18, 2014, when Stephen, a White male, was found with a fatal gunshot wound outside an apartment building in the bustling coastal city. His death marked another grim statistic in a year that saw its share of violence in the popular tourist destination, leaving a family to grapple with a sudden and devastating loss.

Stephen was a father to a daughter, Trinity, and two sons, Slade and Phoenix. He was the son of David and Kathleen Skinner and a brother to Allison Hooper and his three brothers, Jason, Kyle, and Jonathan Brian. A week after his death, his family gathered with friends at Spencer Baptist Church, not for a joyful occasion, but to receive condolences and mourn the man who had been taken from them. The obituary that announced this gathering offered a stark and simple account of a life that had passed, leaving the full story of the man and the father he was to be told by those who knew and loved him.

For nearly two years, the investigation into Stephen's death continued, a quiet and persistent effort by the Myrtle Beach Police Department. The initial shock had faded from the headlines, but for Stephen's family, the questions and the grief remained. The breakthrough in the case came in September 2016, when a 50-year-old man from Baltimore, Maryland, was arrested. Pierre Alexander Haile was taken into custody in Baltimore and extradited to South Carolina, where he was charged with murder and obstructing justice in connection with Stephen's death.

The arrest of a suspect nearly two years after the shooting brought a renewed sense of hope for justice for Stephen's family. The charges suggested a narrative of a crime that someone had allegedly tried to conceal. However, the trail of public information regarding the legal proceedings that followed grows faint. The details of what led to the fatal encounter outside the Myrtle Beach apartment and the outcome of the charges against Pierre Alexander Haile are not readily available in public records.

The story of Stephen Skinner's death is one of a life cut tragically short and a quest for justice that has largely unfolded out of the public eye. While an arrest was made, the final chapter of the legal case remains unclear. What is known is that a family was left without a son, a father, and a brother. The vibrant and often carefree atmosphere of Myrtle Beach was, for a moment, pierced by a violent act that left an indelible mark on those who knew and loved Stephen Robert Skinner. His case is a somber reminder of the lives behind the headlines and the long and often winding path to resolution.