Shaquan Duley

Shaquan Duley

Shaquan Duley : Shaquan Duley charged with murder.
Two young children were pulled dead from their child seats in a submerged car and South Carolina authorities expressed doubts about the mother’s account that it was an accident.
Two-year-old Devean C. Duley and 18-month-old Ja’van T. Duley were dead in their child seats by the time divers got to the car Monday near a rural boat landing, Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams said. County Coroner Samuetta Marshall would not speculate on a cause of death until autopsies were completed Tuesday, and police were trying to determine whether their deaths were accidental.
The boys’ mother, 29-year-old Shaquan Duley, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and it was unclear if she had a lawyer.
But Williams said that early in the investigation, state patrol officers felt the facts didn’t support that there was accident.
“We are looking into all possibilities as to what happened,” the sheriff said.
Highway Patrol was notified around 6:15 a.m. that a woman needed help getting her children out of a car. Shaquan Duley, who did not have a cell phone, had walked some distance down the country road by the boat landing and flagged down a passing motorist to call the Highway Patrol.
The sheriff said investigators were considering how a traffic accident could have happened at the boat ramp, about 20 yards upstream from a main road that crosses the North Edisto River in Orangeburg, some 35 miles south of Columbia, the state capital.
“She showed some emotion, but I can’t say she was overly distraught,” Williams said of Shaquan Duley. “Through her statements, there are some things we think are not believable.”
Williams planned a news conference for 10 a.m. Tuesday to discuss more details of the case. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Keisa Peterson said early Tuesday she was unaware of additional charges.
A woman who watched divers pull the toddlers’ limp bodies out of the car near her home said she couldn’t understand why the boys’ mother didn’t bang on her door for help. Ramona Milhouse, whose side porch door is steps from the river, said at first Monday she thought the boys were unconscious, until she realized their bodies were being taken to the ambulance with no attempt to revive them.
“It sounds fishy to me,” the 81-year-old Milhouse said. “If that was an accident, that woman would’ve been over here screamin’ and hollerin’ and really raising the devil.”