ANDERSON, S.C. (Court TV) — A woman accused of helping her roommates dispose of a dead body was denied bond again and will remain behind bars as she awaits trial.
Victoria Tippett stands in court during a bond hearing on Nov. 12, 2025. (Court TV)
Victoria Tippett is charged with accessory after the fact and obstruction of justice in the death of Jessica Barnes, whose remains were found in September 2024. Prosecutors say Jessica was strangled to death by her husband, Brandon Barnes, who lived with his wife, Tippett and a third woman, Kendall Mims.
Mims and Tippett face the same charges; at a hearing in April, a judge granted Mims a $75,000 bond after her attorney described her as a victim of psychological torture at Brandon’s hands.
At Wednesday’s bond hearing, Tippett’s attorney, Hunter Blouin, said that his client was also a victim of abuse. “It’s apparent that Mr. Barnes was both physically, as well as psychologically, and potentially sexually, abusive towards all these women. It’s our position that Ms. Tippett, once she got involved with Mr. Barnes and moved into that house, she had nowhere to go.” Blouin told the court that Tippett had gotten “involved” with Brandon a month and a half before the murder and moved into the house three weeks before Jessica disappeared.
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After Jessica was killed, investigators say Tippett and Mims helped Brandon dispose of her body by removing her from the home in a large plastic tote that she was seen buying with Brandon at a Walmart.
A portion of Jessica’s remains was found in a bucket buried on a property where the four lived; her teeth and part of her jawbone were found at a site off a hiking trail.
Jessica’s mother, Cecilia Varvara, had a statement read at the hearing and urged the judge to keep Tippett behind bars. “Every bond hearing is not just a legal proceeding,” Varvara wrote. “It slices through our grief and breaks open the pain we desperately want to seal. There are moments in the night when I wonder if our family will ever be able to mourn Jessica and begin to heal.”
Judge R. Lawton McIntosh ultimately sided with prosecutors, who argued that Tippett was a flight risk and a continued danger to the community, as he denied bond. Brandon also remains behind bars without bond pending trial.
