As cadaver dogs searched Newberry County on Tuesday, Dec. 13, for the remains of Aiken County mother Krystal Anderson, authorities upgraded charges against boyfriend Tony Lee Berry for murder.
Solicitor Bill Weeks said it’s clear the Wagener woman is not coming home. Despite not having a body, prosecutors are moving forward with circumstantial evidence against Berry for her kidnapping as well as her death.
“The game has gone on long enough,” the solicitor said Tuesday.
Weeks said they have recently obtained cell phone and tower records that turned up evidence against the suspect. An arson charge against him is also connected to a car deputies found burned in Newberry County, which is why they are looking there for her body.
Berry, 49, was captured Sept. 28 at a hotel by the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and was transferred to Aiken to be charged with kidnapping. The kidnapping warrant said that Berry did “unlawfully seize, confine, inveigle and kidnap the victim” on Aug. 21 from her home in Wagener. The word inveigle means “persuade someone to do something by means of deception or flattery.”
Anderson’s family reported her missing on Aug. 23. She is a mother of four.
Her mother, Wanda Sumter, told authorities that she was concerned due to a history of violence between her daughter and Berry. When the mother talked to Berry, he reportedly told her he didn’t want to report her missing since she “often does this.”
“Since the start of this investigation, it was believed that Krystal was in the company of Tony Lee Berry at her home on Seivern Road in Wagener,” sheriff’s Capt. Eric Abdullah said in an earlier press release.
In the beginning, Berry was listed as a missing person as well. He talked to investigators on Sept. 6 to inform deputies he wasn’t actually missing. Authorities say he also wasn’t considered a suspect at that time.
But as time went on, he became a suspect in the case, leading to the kidnapping warrant, and now murder.
Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com
