‘Budding Serial Killer’ Murdered, Ate Residents Lacking from Psychological Well being Facility: Lawsuit

22-year-old Jared Ondrea’s physique has by no means been discovered, however he was declared useless in 2023, allegedly following a “graphic” confession from Marc-Anthony Cantrell.

Along with Ondrea, Cantrell additionally allegedly admitted to the killing of Deshea Butler, who went lacking from the identical facility.

Per WIS 10, the lawsuit was filed by Ondrea’s grandmother, Peggy, in opposition to the South Carolina Division of Psychological Well being (SCDMH), nicely as New Hope Dwelling Options LLC, the ability in query. Per the go well with, SCDMH really helpful New Hope to the household, who declare that they had no thought the ability additionally “served as a midway home for launched convicted criminals.”

Amongst them was Cantrell, who the go well with claims had a “harmful legal historical past,” together with allegedly setting hearth to his grandmother’s home to “cowl up the actual fact he had brutally killed the household’s three canines in what was described by police as a ‘grotesque’ scene.”

Describing Cantrell’s look, the go well with stated he was “laborious to overlook” as a result of “throughout his time in jail, Cantrell had gotten satan horns tattooed on his brow, signifying his love and worship of Devil.”

In keeping with the household’s account, they final noticed Jared alive on March 20, 2023 — one month after he moved into the ability. His grandmother had taken him to a close-by lake, earlier than dropping him again off earlier than curfew that very same day.

When his grandparents returned two days later, on March 22, he did not meet them exterior and no person on the facility answered the entrance door, per the go well with. It wasn’t till the following day they are saying they heard from New Hope, who allegedly instructed them he had been lacking since he was dropped off by the household.

His disappearance, based on his kinfolk, was “alarmingly out-of-character for Jared,” who they are saying most well-liked isolating in his room. Regardless of a search, his physique was by no means discovered.

4 months after Jared’s disappearance, one other resident on the similar facility, Deshea Butler, on the additionally vanished. Butler, who was described by police as Cantrell’s “roommate,” was reported lacking on July 4, earlier than his physique was found on the sixth.

Per the go well with, video surveillance led to the arrest of Cantrell for Butler’s homicide on the ninth. It is then he allegedly “confessed to police that he had additionally killed Jared and offered particular, graphic particulars as to how the homicide was carried out and the technique of disposing of Jared’s physique,” based on the lawsuit.

The go well with claims he instructed police he killed Jared “by putting a bag over his head and strangling him with a rope,” earlier than placing his physique in a Rubbermaid bin, carrying it exterior and putting his stays right into a metropolis rubbish can, the place they had been by no means seen once more.

Jared’s household says Cantrell was “little question emboldened by his profitable homicide of Jared” when he killed Deshea, who they declare was additionally killed by way of strangulation earlier than his physique was dumped close by.

Cantrell additionally instructed police, per the go well with, “that he killed Jared and Deshea as a result of his alternate character, Robert Baldwin, had instructed him to take action.” He then allegedly stated he “had reduce off one in every of Jared’s ears, and each of Deshea’s, and ate them ‘so he might acquire their energy,'” earlier than amassing Deshea’s blood in a espresso cup, which he drank out of “over a number of days.”

Cantrell was additionally charged with Jared’s homicide in August 2023.

“Sadly, each little bit of this was avoidable,” reads the go well with. “Cantrell — who had each telltale signal of a budding serial killer — by no means ought to have been positioned in a house with weak adults.”

“Upon info and perception, SCDMH didn’t take any applicable steps to deal with Cantrell or to in any other case forestall the apparent hazard that he posed to the general public and to these residing in shut proximity to him,” it provides.

An lawyer representing New Hope stated his shoppers raised issues about Cantrell to each regulation enforcement and SCDMH. “It seems, sadly, that a few of the applicable professionals didn’t do their finish of the job and I believe in a method it facilitated the actions that occurred,” they stated.

SCDMH has not have commented on the go well with.