Police ID body found near Fort Mill as pregnant Charlotte woman; partner charged

Police have identified the body of a woman found on the side of a road near Fort Mill as a Charlotte woman who was pregnant at the time of her death.

Charlotte police identified the woman who died as Natalie Nicholle Merrick, 23.

Police arrested her long-time partner, Mahmood Amjad Bhatti, 28, Wednesday, and have charged him with murder and the murder of an unborn child.

Merrick was reported missing on Oct. 20 from her Charlotte home, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department report.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and York County Sheriff’s Office are working together on the investigation.

York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department were able to identify the body found on the side of Dobys Bridge Road in Fort Mill Oct. 19 as Merrick.

“Later on in the investigation, we were contacted by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department that (the body) may be their missing person,” Tolson said. “And of course in any missing person investigation, we have several tools at our disposal that we try to identify individuals. Of course fingerprints are one, DNA is one, and in this particular case, the tattoos that were on Ms. Merrick’s body were of particular significance and uniqueness.”

York County investigators had asked the public for help identifying the body. They released pictures of several distinctive tattoos on the body, including the words “Naveed Mahmood” and a crescent moon on her shoulder and the letter “Q” and a spade on her wrist.

York County detectives determined Merrick was killed somewhere else, and that her body was dumped on Dobys Bridge Road.

Bhatti and Merrick had a child together, according to CMPD.

Tolson said domestic violence homicides are “all too common.”

“It’s no secret that South Carolina now has graduated out of first in the United States for domestic violence related homicides to fifth,” Tolson said. “That’s still not a good number.”

Bhatti is being held at the Mecklenburg County Jail. He was also arrested in August on a charge of assaulting a woman, according to jail records.

York County deputies are involved in the case because the body was found near Fort Mill. But Charlotte prosecutors will handle the murder cases against Bhatti for the death of his girlfriend and her unborn child.

The charge against Bhatti was made and will be prosecuted in North Carolina because the crime is alleged to have happened there, said Willy Thompson, 16th Circuit Deputy Solicitor.

Law enforcement and prosecutors in York County often work with North Carolina counterparts on cases, said Kevin Brackett, 16th Circuit Solicitor. Even though charges and prosecution are in North Carolina, the investigation by York County deputies is crucial, Brackett said.

“It’s that kind of cooperation and willingness and the ability to work with each other that makes an investigation successful,” Tolson said. “And just because there’s a state line, I would hope that criminals and defendants understand the state line doesn’t deter us from working together to eventually end up with a successful investigation and prosecution.”

In several other cases in recent years, bodies were found in York County but the crimes were committed in North Carolina and prosecuted there.

The most recent was in May, when a Charlotte Uber driver was found in Rock Hill by York County deputies and a K-9 team in a case where the killing is alleged in Charlotte.

S.C. State Rep. Bruce Bryant, R-York, who was sheriff of York County from 1997 through 2016, said York County’s proximity to Charlotte and Gastonia, N.C. have made it a target for dumped bodies “numerous times.” Killers have tried to hide bodies in York County to try and throw off police, Bryant said.

York County, despite a population that has soared over a quarter million people, has more rural areas than Charlotte, Bryant said.

“Many times, we found bodies and it turned out that the killer was doing everything he could to make it difficult to solve it,” Bryant said.

In 2009, York County deputies found the bodies of two women near the Gaston County line. Police charged Danny Hembree of Gaston County with killing the women in North Carolina, then dumping the bodies in York County.

In 2008, a woman’s body was found off Pleasant Road in a murder where police had earlier arrested a man for the crime authorities said happened in Charlotte.

In 2006, deputies found the body of a Charlotte murder victim off Pleasant Road in Fort Mill.

In 2005, deputies in western York County discovered a body in parts police said was from a Gaston County killing.

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 9:48 AM with the headline "Police ID body found near Fort Mill as pregnant Charlotte woman; partner charged."