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NORTH CHARLESTON — Police charged a man with murder after finding a woman dead in bushes near the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott close to the Tanger Outlet. 

The body of Kelly Wingate, 48, was discovered March 27, according to a statement from North Charleston Police Department spokesman Harve Jacobs. 

Wingate suffered from blunt force injuries, according to a March 28 statement from Charleston County Coroner Bobbi O'Neal. 

Detectives arrested 42-year-old Robert Deantonio Gardner and charged him with murder March 27.

He was apprehended on the 5000 block of International Boulevard, according to Jacobs. Jail records show Gardner is being held without bond. 

Gardner has been booked into the Charleston County jail nearly two dozen times before, jail records show. Convictions have mainly been for non-violent offenses such as drugs and property crimes. The strong armed robbery charge was reduced to robbery and he was sentenced to five years on probation in December 2020, according to court records.

This is the fourth homicide being investigated by NCPD this year, according to records maintained by The Post and Courier. There were nearly 80 homicides in the tri-county area in 2023. 


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