Oil Trail From Crash Scene Led to Suspect in SC Hit-and-Run Death

Authorities in Greenwood, South Carolina, responded to a reported road accident just after 1 a.m. on May 7, 2023, and found 46-year-old Davis McClendon's body in the woods near a mangled BMW 5 Series, according to CBS News' "48 Hours."

Greenwood County Sheriff's Investigator Patrick Durkin, who documented the scene, said the car showed unusual damage. "This was torn back, like a tuna can in a sense," he said, describing the front fender. The airbags had deployed, and a phone was found on the passenger seat. McClendon's body was located about 50 feet from the vehicle, leading investigators to believe he had been outside the car when he was struck.

Investigator Ronny Powell said authorities initially worked under "the assumption that he was struck by a vehicle." Two women at the scene, Meredith Haynie and Megan McGovern, had called 911. Haynie told investigators she had been dating McClendon and that he had called her from the intersection of Avid Road and Sawgrass Place after leaving a club that night. When he put her on hold and didn't return to the call, she grew worried, and McGovern drove her to the location. McGovern was the first to find McClendon's body.

Friends described McClendon as a devoted father who worked at a retirement home and had no enemies. "Everybody loved Davis," said friend Chip Funderbunk. He had begun dating Haynie in December 2022, about six months after she left her husband, Bud Ackerman, a local auto body shop owner.

At the crash site, Durkin noticed an oil slick in the road along with footprints and tire tracks leading away from it. "We knew that there was some type of impact to the vehicle," Durkin said. "And then we knew there was oil and tire marks that left from here." The oil trail, he said, appeared to be evidence from the vehicle that struck McClendon — a lead investigators would follow away from the scene as they worked to identify a suspect in what began as a mysterious late-night crash.