DNA evidence leads to arrest of suspect in fatal mobile home fire

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - The Richland County Sheriff's Department has announced new developments in regards to an arson fire that killed two people on May 30th.

They say DNA evidence has led to the arrest of a suspect, Julian Whatley, 25, of Columbia. Police say he was arrested at his mother's house.

Officers found two people dead in a burned mobile home, and another was injured in that fire. Forty-five-year-old Crystal Ferguson and, her daughter, nine-year-old Hillary Wright, have been identified as the two killed in the fire.

Their bodies were found in two separate bedrooms on opposite sides of the Rembert Martin Park mobile home.

Authorities say the person who survived, a roommate to the deceased, had been sexually assaulted. That victim, who was being treated at the Augusta Burn Center, was able to communicate with investigators about the fire. She talked to them on Friday, June First.

Sheriff Lott says the victim was able to tell investigators that a short, black male with glasses set the fire and also sexually assaulted her after he set the fire - that the man unlawfully entered the trailer and threw a bucket of gasoline at her roommate, which struck a lit candle, and started the blaze. Sheriff Lott says that the suspect then dragged her out of the trailer into the woods and sexually assaulted her.

When firefighters got to the house a little after 4am Wednesday, fire had consumed more than half of the home. Columbia fire chief Aubrey Jenkins said, "(We) found one body, but whenever you find two is even more devastating. And then you have the third person that's burned, and you just, you hope that she can survive."

Authorities say DNA evidence has linked Whatley to two other sexual assaults that occurred late April and late May. One took place on April 25 on Beatty Downs Road and the other on May 26 on Kay Street.

Sheriff Leon Lott says that the victim in the fire case told investigators that the man who set the fire and sexually assaulted her had also sexually assaulted her friend on April 25. He says the victim from the Beatty Downs case and the victim in the fire case were together a few days before the fire and arrived home to Rembert Parkway when they found a man inside the residence. According to Lott, the victim from the Beatty Downs case said that the man they found inside was the man that sexually assaulted her in April.

Sheriff Lott says all three victims positively identified Whatley as their assailant.

Whatley has been charged with two counts of murder, one count of arson first degree, one count of assault and battery with intent to kill, one count of burglary first degree, three counts of criminal sexual assault and three counts of kidnapping.