LEXINGTON, S.C. (Court TV) — A South Carolina father who investigators say was found hiding in a shed is accused of burying his infant child alive.
Michael Comer (Lexington County Sheriff’s Office)
Michael Comer, 25, is charged with attempted murder, unlawful conduct toward a child, custodial interference and burglary; during a brief court hearing on Thursday morning, a judge ordered that he be held without bond.
Comer’s mother called deputies Monday to report her son and grandchild missing. Comer had apparently disappeared with his 11-month-old son, all of the child’s clothing and two diaper bags, but no formula.
Deputies said Comer was living with his mother after he was released from jail and had custody of his son for the previous four days. Comer’s mother pointed investigators to Facebook messages her son had exchanged with the child’s mother, in which he threatened to keep the child and said that she “would have to call the police to get their baby back, and referenced that he was going to kill himself,” deputies wrote in an incident report.
The child’s mother told officers that Comer was upset with her “because she refused to delete videos from her OnlyFans account and would not unfriend her other child’s father on Facebook,” the incident report said. “[Redacted] stated Michael told her to wait until January, when he would take custody of [their child] and that ‘there was nothing she could do about it.'” The witness also told investigators that Comer had spent four to five months in jail for pushing her while she was holding their child and threatening to kill them.
Dirt is disturbed in the area where an 11-month-old child was found buried alive. (AP Photo/Eric Verduzco)
Investigators tracked Comer down several hours later and said they found him hiding inside a shed he had broken into on a stranger’s property.
It took nearly 24 hours for investigators to find the 11-month-old child, described by Lexington County Sheriff Brian “Jay” Koon as “buried alive, clinging to life.”
At a news conference, Koon said that the child had been inside a dog crate, wrapped in a towel “that, by the grace of God, probably provided enough air for him to survive, our estimation, the last 24 hours under that dirt.”
A group of searchers found the child buried about 50 yards into the tree line near Comer’s father’s home, and rushed to look closer after noticing an area of freshly disturbed dirt. As first responders began to dig, Koon said, they could hear the child’s cries. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Comer is scheduled to return to court for his first appearance on Dec. 10.
