State inmate from Oconee found dead

A state prison inmate from Oconee County was found dead this week in his cell at the Lee Correctional Institution, and the Department of Corrections says the investigation is centered on the likelihood that Lee Mikeal Cawthon took his own life.  He did not have cellmate, according to the DOC.  Cawthon, 45 years old, pleaded guilty to the 2017 murder of his wife, Rebecca Murray Cawthon, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.  Mrs. Cawthon’s body was found stuffed inside a barrel on their Welcome Church Road property near Westminster.  The case was considered a disturbing example of domestic violence and was highlighted by I-D, the Investigation Discovery Channel, in a program called “Fatal Vows.”  The channel’s publicity department previewed Fatal Vows this way:  “Spite, greed, backstabbing and betrayal. When marriages fall apart, divorce can turn ugly…or even deadly.”