Vinson Fiyo, who was sentenced to 421 years in prison for kidnapping, torturing and raping a 14-year-old girl in Carshaw County, who was housed in an underground bunker loaded with explosives, was sentenced to state prison on Monday. Died in. His death.
According to sources, 51-year-old Fiyo was found to be unresponsive in a cell at the McCormick Correctional Facility, an all-male facility in McCormick County.
There are no immediate signs of cheating and an autopsy will take place, sources said.
McCormick County coroner Fay Packet confirmed on Monday that the prisoner had died, but did not reveal his name. State correctional officials said their practice was to have county coroners identify prisoners who died in prisons.
lifetime TV movie “Bunker Girl” about the incident It aired in 2018.
“He was a bad guy, as bad as he could get without killing anyone,” Bernie Gyze, a former fifth judicial circuit solicitor who charged Fiyo’s case, said in an interview Monday.
“He celebrates 421 and deserves it every day,” Gyze said.
According to prison records, Fiyo was due for sale in 2353.
He was caught in 2006 The following year, he pleaded guilty. The judge sentenced him to 421 years in prison, combining a series of judgments on kidnapping, rape, law enforcement officer impersonation, and numerous other crimes.
“Not allowed,” G. Judge Thomas Cooper sentenced Fiyo to one of the longest decisions given to defendants in modern states. “You have preyed on helpless victims in violent and barbaric ways.”
From school buses to bunker with explosives
In September 2006, a 14-year-old girl went missing after getting off the school bus in the Elgin community in Kershaw County.
by Detailed story of the state newspaper In 2007, evidence of the incident showed Fiyo hiding in a bush, waiting for the girl to leave the bus stop, and then jumping out in front of her in a shirt with a police emblem. He mistakenly told her that she had been arrested because her family was growing marijuana and handcuffed it.
After taking her into the woods, he raped her, put a necklace on her, and told her that she was full of explosives. He said he would blow her up and then kill her brother if she tried to escape. Fiyo then led the girl deep into the woods, where he prepared a six-foot-deep underground hideout with camouflaged doors. It was booby trapped with explosives.
According to officials, the bunker was one of four bunker built by Fiyo around Kershaw County. There was a well, a bed, a stove, a TV, and an escape hatch. As the days went by, Fiyo allowed the victim to play video games on his cell phone.
One night, while Fiyo was asleep, she wrote a text message to her mother on her cell phone, lifted the camouflage door, and extended her hand on her cell phone to send the message. It eventually led the authorities to a hideout, where they found her.
Evidence included a chain that Fiyo placed around his neck to capture her, a handmade badge disguised as a police officer, a knife he had when he was arrested, a pellet gun, and night-vision goggles. ..
Fiyo told authorities that the kidnapping was motivated to seek revenge from the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office, which allegedly accused him of sexual crimes.
“A world she is not suitable for”
At the plea hearing, the girl’s mother told Judge Cooper: Our innocent child suffered pain and abuse and was placed in a world where she was unfit. “
Also at a 2007 hearing, defense lawyer Jack Duncan evidenced that Philly was an alcoholic unemployed lonely person who had endured a turbulent childhood, dropped out of high school, and suffered from delusions and delusions. Was introduced.
Duncan said on Monday that he had redeemed himself to some extent when Fiyo decided to plead guilty instead of being tried. This spared the victims the testimony.
Duncan said he was a veteran lawyer with thousands of clients in his 40-year career and had never been sentenced to 425 years in prison.
“I think this is the longest specific sentence in South Carolina’s history,” Duncan said.
Prosecutor Gyze said he remembers very clearly that the actions of the kidnapped girl led the authorities to a bunker.
“She was very strong and very brave,” he said.
Authorities blew up Fiyo’s bunker after the incident ended, Gyze said.