KERSHAW — A Lancaster County woman is dead after deputies say her husband shot and killed her and then called police Monday night.
Deputies say Joseph Daniel Hilton, 62, surrendered himself to police after reporting that he shot Deborah Faile Hilton, his 59-year-old wife, according to a Lancaster County Sheriff’s release.
Police were called to 8992 Old Jefferson Highway in Kershaw shortly after 11:50 p.m. Monday after Joseph Hilton called 911 to report what he had done, the release states. When police arrived, they found Deborah Hilton dead of a single gunshot wound in her upper torso.
Investigators say Joseph Hilton shot his wife after an argument. No one else was at the home, the release states. Hilton, told a 911 operator his wife wouldn’t stop talking, so he shot and killed her.
“She just kept on and on and on, and I just couldn’t talk to her,” Hilton said during a 911 call obtained by Herald news partner WSOC TV. When the 911 operator asked Hilton why he shot her, he replied, “We were in a domestic argument, and we just could not come to a conclusion.”
Joseph Hilton didn’t elaborate on what he and his wife were arguing about, said Sheriff Barry Faile.
“He said he just couldn’t take it anymore ,” Faile said.
Joseph Hilton is charged with murder and is being held at the Lancaster County Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing. He has no prior criminal history.
This is the first homicide deputies have investigated this year. It’s the second killing this year in the county. A Kershaw man died two days after a Jan. 26 shooting in the city of Lancaster. Domestic violence in South Carolina
Last fall, the Violence Policy Center reported that South Carolina ranked as the No. 2 state with the highest rate of women killed by men.
The only state worse than South Carolina was Nevada, according to the report “When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2010 Homicide Data.”
The annual report includes only records where a woman was killed by a single male offender using data available from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
South Carolina, according to the report, had 46 women murdered by men in 2010 for a homicide rate of 1.94 per 100,000. The ranking is an increase from the previous year’s study, which looked at 2009 data when South Carolina ranked No. 7 with 42 deaths and a 1.79 rate.
