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South Carolina Man Reported Missing Arrested In Colorado For Girlfriend's Murder
William Cagle, who was reported missing with his girlfriend, Terry Chermak, a week ago has been arrested in Colorado after Chermak's body was discovered in her home.
The male half of a South Carolina couple reported missing on Saturday has been found... and arrested for his girlfriend's murder.
William "Todd" Cagle, 48, was arrested on Tuesday in Denver, according to jail records reviewed by Oxygen.com. The U.S. Marshals apprehended him outside his hotel in downtown Denver on felony warrants for murder and possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, according to a press release from the Laurens County Sheriff's Office and one from the Marshals.
Cagle and his girlfriend, Terry Chermak, 49, were reported missing in Greenville on Saturday by her sister, according to the Columbia, South Carolina newspaper The State, though they both lived 35 miles southeast in Laurens. Neither had been seen since Sept. 9, though Chermak's boss reportedly had received a text from her phone stating she had Covid. Her vehicle, a gray 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander SUV, was also missing.
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Cagle's phone had reportedly last pinged in North Carolina around 8:20 p.m. on Saturday night, while Chermak's phone had last pinged around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday in Fort Walton Beach, Florida — 500 miles from Laurens, on the coast of the western part of the state's panhandle, according to the paper. Chermak's adult son lives just 20 minutes west of Fort Walton, but wrote on Facebook that he hadn't seen her.
Chermak's sister said they'd found her dog in the backyard of her Laurens home, and their father was caring for the animal, according to The State.
By Tuesday, however, the Greenville police, who had been investigating the missing persons report, turned the case over to the Laurens County Sheriff's Office, according to Greenville NBC affiliate WYFF, as investigators had determined the couple had last been seen in Laurens, according to The State.
The sheriff's office went to Chermak's home at 9:20 a.m. on Tuesday and discovered a body. The coroner's office confirmed to WYFF on Wednesday that it was Chermak's body, and she had sustained a single gunshot wound. Her official cause of death has yet to be released.
Cagle was arrested in Denver at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
Police have not specified a motive or time of death in the case. It's unclear if Cagle has obtained legal representation in Colorado or when he might be extradited to South Carolina.
Court records reviewed by Oxygen.com reflect that he pleaded guilty in January 2007 to two offenses in Greenville committed on the same day in October 2005: assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, and obtaining under false pretenses a signature or property with a value of more than $1,000. WYFF reported that the battery conviction was for a domestic violence assault. He also pleaded guilty in 2021 to a Christmas 2020 open container violation in Laurens County.
He was further subject to three debt collection actions — two by debt collectors and one by a direct lender — in 2019, 2021 and 2022, respectively, for a total of $37,633.
Cagle had previously been married, and court records show that the couple's home went into foreclosure and his wife filed for divorce in 2004. Both the foreclosure and the divorce were granted in March 2005.
On Tuesday evening, Terry Chermak's sister, Linda Bryant, posted a link — without comment — on her Facebook profile to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
