Police Reports: Missing Woman's Fiancé Committed Suicide

Just hours after police began searching for missing Mount Pleasant woman Dara Lee Watson, her fiancé took his own life, according to police reports.

Police called David Hedrick earlier in the day Friday after Watson's employer reported her missing, and then 2 1/2 hours later, Hedrick's friends reported finding him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the home he once shared with Watson.

An official cause of death has not been released by the Charleston County Coroner, but police reports do not indicate any other potential causes.

Read more coverage of Dara Watson's case.

The missing-person call came around 10 a.m. Friday, according to reports. Mount Pleasant police began contacting a list of friends and family shortly afterward, and those calls included Hedrick.

Around 12:30 p.m., friends called police to report the apparent suicide, reports state.

Officers arrived at the home around 12:55 p.m. and saw Hedrick on his bed, hands over his chest, with a pool of blood forming around his head. His friends told officers they placed a 9-mm gun in a nearby bathroom.

When police called Hedrick earlier in the day, he said he and Watson had an argument on Monday evening and that on Tuesday Watson had left the home and had not returned. He said it wasn’t unusual for Watson to leave after arguments, but he was beginning to worry, the report states.

. Earlier in the week they found her burned-out SUV on a remote road near the Francis Marion National Forest, but it wasn’t immediately clear that the vehicle was connected to a missing-person case.

Charleston County sheriff’s deputies led a , but called off the search on Sunday after turning up no leads.