Murdered Barnwell County mother remembered as loving, forgiving person
LEESVILLE, S.C. (WIS) - The sister of a man who was charged with murdering his mother and dumping her body, spoke with WIS News 10.
Investigators said Terry Lee Self Jr. strangled his mother and dumped her body in the North Fork Edisto River.
Regina Arroyo, 56, from Barnwell County, went missing on Nov. 30.
Three days later, deputies responded to the river near Wagner Highway in Leesville where a canoer found Arroyo’s body.
According to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, detectives have been working the case for the past seven months. Mindy Chrysler, Arroyo’s daughter, said she noticed inconsistencies with her brother’s personality for the past six months.
She said she became suspicious of her brother after seeing him drive her mother’s new rental car shortly after her disappearance.
Chrysler said Self had a past with law enforcement and his recent change in personality caused alarm within their family. But despite that, she still couldn’t believe it.
“I didn’t want to believe it though, like, who would kill their mother, you know, like my brother wouldn’t have done that,” she said. “But I denied it, up until an investigator ... told me he had done it.”
She said her mother was more than just a mom.
“Her having such a big heart, her being so kind and generous with the little bit that she had, to try and help my brother, that ultimately ended her life,” Chrysler said. “My mom was always there for him; my mother was there for him the first time he went to prison in New York state.”
Self had been booked into the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department six times since 2016, the sheriff’s department said.
“My mom would always do for him, no matter what he did, she forgave him, and tried to help him the best that she could, he is my son, what am I to do?”
Self is currently being held in Richland County at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on an unrelated charge.
By law, a magistrate was unable to set bond for Self when he appeared in court on Monday.
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