Man found dead after suspicious fire in Aiken

Markel Howard (via Facebook)

Date: January 14, 2025

An Aiken man was found dead in a home after a suspicious fire Sunday night on Kellogg Drive, authorities said.

Markel Howard, 23, was found inside the home on the 100 block of Kellogg Drive around 7:42 p.m. Sunday when first responders answered the call, according to Coroner Darryl Ables. The location is located off Banks Mill Road, not far from the Aiken Animal Hospital.

Howard was located inside the home and pronounced deceased at 9 p.m., the coroner said.

“The origin of the fire is suspicious and Mr. Howard will be autopsied in Newberry Tuesday morning,” Ables said in a press release.

The Coroner’s Office along with the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office are continuing with the investigation into the cause of the fire.

Note: If you have a better photo or memory of Markel Howard to share, please text it to 803-487-3224.

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.