The bodies of Melissa Fairlee Rhymer and Christin Renee Bunner were found on a home property in Spartanburg, South Carolina on Friday. Officers from the region were alerted to the bodies when they responded to a disturbance incident between police deputies and Christian Hulburt who possessed weapons at a towing company on Wednesday night.
Presently, two men Christian Hulburt, 41, and Jonathan Galligan, 39 have been arrested for being responsible for the murders.
Christin Renee Bunner was initially reported missing last December and was Jonathan’s girlfriend at the time while Rhymer was killed sometimes in January according to the autopsy report and was recognized by fingerprints. She has no missing person report attached to her.
When officers tried interviewing Hulburt, he was non-compliant and shot himself in the head before being rushed to the hospital. After he survived the gunshot injury, he confessed to witnessing Galligan murder Bunner at the towing company and burying her together on the home property.
Officers searched the burial site the whole of Thursday but couldn’t find the bodies until they interviewed Galligan before returning to the place with cadaver dogs. Galligan asked for an attorney after the interrogation and was discharged for lack of evidence as at then. Rhymer’s body was not discovered until Hulburt provided information of a second body buried on the property.
The property where the bodies were discovered is inhabited by a woman and three men who had not been seen in weeks.
Hulburt was released from the hospital on Saturday and was arraigned alongside Galligan for a bail bond which they were denied.
Hulburt is charged with murder, accessory to murder and unlawful possession of a firearm as a convicted felon while Galligan is being charged for homicide and accessory to murder.
