HAMPTON – In the Lowcountry county where the Murdaugh family once ruled, investigators charged a recent Beaufort County employee with a brutal cold case murder.

Courtney Lane, 30, has been accused of pouring bleach down the throat of Jimmy Smoak in April 2019, plausibly causing “suffocation or asphyxiation,” according to court documents. Ronald Lyons restrained him and has confessed to the crime. He has also been charged with murder.

His admission is supplemented by recorded calls and witness statements, affidavits from a Hampton County investigator say.

Lane was arrested Oct. 20 and given a $200,000 cash bond, despite pleas from Smoak’s family and prosecutors who preferred she remain behind bars. Circuit Judge Robert Bonds set bail after finding that Lane had ties to the community and

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