Columbia County firefighter accused in two rapes

Zander McDade

Date: May 31, 2025

Richmond County authorities have arrested 20-year-old Zander Ean McDade in connection with two separate rape investigations.

McDade, identified as an employee of the Columbia County Fire Department, has been charged with two counts of rape, involving two different victims at different times and locations, according to a RCSO press release. He is currently being held at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center.

“These cases remain under active investigation, and no further details will be released at this time to protect the integrity of the investigations and the privacy of the victims,” the release says.

Zander McDade is shown in a March 7 Facebook post from Columbia County Fire Rescue at a “relief officer class scenario with burns.”

Anyone with information related to these cases is encouraged to contact the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division at 706-821-1020 or submit an anonymous tip through their tip line.

A Facebook page for McDade says he lives in Evans.

What to Read Next

The Author

Greg Rickabaugh is an award-winning crime reporter in the Augusta-Aiken area with experience writing for The Augusta Chronicle and serving as publisher of The Jail Report. He also owns AugustaCrime.com. Rickabaugh is a 1994 graduate of the University of South Carolina and has appeared on several crime documentaries on the Investigation Discovery channel. He is married with two daughters.

Comment Policy

The Augusta Press encourages and welcomes reader comments; however, we request this be done in a respectful manner, and we retain the discretion to determine which comments violate our comment policy. We also reserve the right to hide, remove and/or not allow your comments to be posted.

The types of comments not allowed on our site include:

  • Threats of harm or violence
  • Profanity, obscenity, or vulgarity, including images of or links to such material
  • Racist comments
  • Victim shaming and/or blaming
  • Name calling and/or personal attacks;
  • Comments whose main purpose are to sell a product or promote commercial websites or services;
  • Comments that infringe on copyrights;
  • Spam comments, such as the same comment posted repeatedly on a profile.