In November 2019, Meagan Jackson’s relationship of 16 years collapsed.
That same month, her mother, who was set to cosign on a home in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, died.
“My sister, her demeanor kind of changed,” Jackson’s half-brother Shawn Harju told the Post and Courier. “She basically ended up homeless.”
Approximately a year later, Greg Rice, Jackson’s ex and the father of her four children, was found dead. Shortly afterwards, Jackson and her married work colleague with whom she was having an affair were charged with Rice’s murder.
Jackson and Christopher Dontell worked together at the county coroner’s office and she was pregnant with his child.
Dontell went on trial this week and, on Wednesday, pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to testify against his former lover at her trial.
Greg Rice vanishes
The saga began when Dontell, the 41-year-old Horry County deputy coroner and a married father-of-two, began a romantic relationship with Jackson.
The pair, who both lived around Conway, met after Jackson, 39, was subcontracted to the coroner’s office working as a body transporter removing corpses from the scene of death.
It is not clear exactly when Jackson began working with the Horry County Coroner’s Office or when the affair started.
But by November 2019, Jackson’s relationship with Rice was over.
Despite parting, the former couple continued to be in regular communication due to their children, police said.
Then, on October 5, 2020, Jackson reported Rice missing to police.
He was last seen on October 2 near Flintlake Drive outside of Myrtle Beach, according to Horry County police.
Multiple searches were conducted over the following days, and search warrants served in an effort to locate the missing 46-year-old.
In the early hours of November 8, 2020, Rice’s body was discovered along the Little Pee Dee Rive. He had been shot five times and police said significant efforts had been made to hide his body, reported Court TV.
According to court documents, it had “been wrapped in a tarp that was secured by zip ties, and was weighted down by at least one cinder block secured with a ratchet strap.”
Later, investigators said they had uncovered surveillance footage from a Lowe’s home improvement store showing Dontell with a shopping cart full of cement blocks, a tarp, and zip ties on October 3 – one day after Rice was last seen alive.
Arrest and charges
Dontell continued working at the coroner’s office until November 9, when police identified him as a person of interest in the case.
Both Dontell and Jackson were arrested on November 11 after police analyzed their cell phone records, deployed license plate readers and conducted witness interviews.
Upon their arrest, they admitted to their affair, according to authorities. Detectives later learned that Jackson was pregnant with Dontell’s child, according to Court TV. It is not clear if she gave birth.
“Permission was given to examine Chris Dontell’s county phone and vehicle at that time,” coroner Rober Edge said in a statement the day of his arrest.
During a search warrant executed at Jackson’s home, police said they also found evidence of child abuse on November 12, 2020, according to WBTV.
Jackson allegedly locked her children in a room and they were forced to urinate in jars, according to the arrest warrant. Police said batteries were also removed from the doors’ electronic locks and the windows were padlocked.
Jackson and Dontell were hit with two murder charges, two counts of criminal conspiracy, four counts of neglect of children or a helpless person, one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and one count of accessory after the fact for the death of Rice.
Jackson and Dontell were released on bond pending trial, but both were returned to jail after they violated their release terms by contacting one another.
They allegedly communicated via phone and Dontell secretly met with his co-defendant while she was on house arrest, according to a Horry County solicitor.
As of June, Dontell was being held at J Reuben Long Detention Center, according to The Sun News while Jackson returned to home detention.
Guilty plea
With jury selection for Dontell’s trial concluding Monday, opening statements were initially scheduled to begin Tuesday.
But moments before the trial was set to begin, the defendant indicated he wanted to plead guilty to a single charge of accessory after the fact.
According to Mary-Ellen Walter, senior assistant solicitor, Dontell ultimately agreed to plead guilty to two charges Wednesday morning: criminal conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact of murder.
The judge told Dontell that he could face up to 20 years in prison for the two charges alone.
In exchange for the murder charge being dropped, he agreed to testify against Jackson at her trial, according to Walter. “Mrs. Jackson said to him essentially, ‘It was him or you. I need you to go get him out of the cooler at the Myrtle Beach Funeral Home and get rid of him,” Walter told the court.
“From the first day I’ve been involved, he’s always wanted to plead to what he was guilty of, which was an accessory after,” Dontell’s defense attorney Aimee Zmroczek told WDPE on Wednesday.
Dontell is still scheduled to stand trial on other charges.
Jackson’s trial was due to begin on Monday but was subsequently delayed. She is now scheduled to stand trial on February 10 2025.
