Timothy Shelnut, 75, of Evans, died April 20 in McDuffie County in a single vehicle car accident.
McDuffie County Coroner Paul Johnson confirmed that Shelnut was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m. at the scene of the accident, which occurred on the Lincolnton Highway.
“It appears that (Shelnut) lost control of his vehicle at the curve in the road where it’s not lighted very well and went down the embankment and flipped over,” Johnson said.
Shelnut made a fortune in the securities industry and was long thought to be the wealthiest man in Columbia County. He was appointed to the Georgia Board of Regents in 2000 by Gov. Roy Barnes and was later elected as chairman of the board.
“It’s probably one of the biggest falls from grace in local history,” WGAC talk radio host Austin Rhodes said.
According to Rhodes, Shelnut may have been worth as much as $35 million when he settled in Evans and bought the Columbia County News Times. However, he only owned the newspaper for 10 months before selling it to Morris Communication.
Shelnut was also heavily engaged in local Republican politics and was a peripheral character in the Linda Shrenko embezzlement case of 2004 when the former state school superintendent was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Shelnut was not prosecuted in the matter, but his name was brought up in spotlighting the seedier side of Columbia County politics.
“Frank Schrenko, Linda’s former husband, said on my radio show that Tim showed up at an event for Sue Burmeister and handed her a bag with $10,000 in cash,” Rhodes said.
In 2007, Shelnut faced a messy divorce, and he filed bankruptcy in 2008, according to past media reports. Shelnut was later jailed for contempt of court in 2014 for hiding assets and again for failure to pay alimony after his second bankruptcy filing in 2017.
Most recently, Shelnut was arrested for DUI on March 16.
According to the coroner, Shelnut was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the fatal collision, and while the Georgia State Patrol is continuing its investigation, alcohol is not suspected as a factor in the wreck.
Barry Paschal, who once worked for Shelnut at the Columbia County News Times, says Shelnut’s life story is “tremendously sad.”
“At his core, he was a great guy. He was prone to great highs and terrible lows. Working for him was interesting. He didn’t know much about the newspaper business, but he was smart enough to hire people who did,” Paschal said.
