The Augusta Press has exclusive new details on the crimes that Hephzibah suspect George Curtis was running from Friday when he shot two deputy marshals and then killed himself.
Curtis, 78, was accused by his own stepdaughter in 2019 of years of sexual abuse that made her want to end her own life. She was a teenager living in New Mexico in 2019 when she finally got the courage to step forward and talk about the molestation that she endured in Richmond County at the hands of her step-father. She was 17 when she stepped forward.
According to a sheriff’s report obtained by The Augusta Press, the teen said her elderly stepfather molested her for years at his Hephzibah home. She confessed to authorities that she had been molested by Curtis from the age of 8 to 15 while living with him on Oak Ridge Plantation Road in Hephzibah.
The victim’s sister also told authorities that she witnessed her sister being raped by Curtis in the master bedroom of his home. In March 2020, a local officer arrested Curtis.
But he was eventually granted bond, jumped bail and skipped a Sept. 18 court date in Augusta, where he was facing charges including child rape, aggravated child molestation and aggravated sexual battery.
On Friday, the U.S. Marshals Service’s Carolina Regional Fugitive Task Force tracked Curtis to an Extended Stay America hotel near Irmo., S.C. Several agencies converged on the hotel Friday morning. But when Curtis spotted law enforcement, he began shooting and wounded two deputy marshals. At some point, Curtis turned his gun on himself, taking his own life, authorities said.
According to media reports, the wounded marshals were in stable condition and expected to survive.
Trial notes show that the case lingered for months due to the pandemic and through several procedural moves and motions, even as the elderly man grew older and was freed on bond on horrible allegations. See the case management report below:
