A body discovered in a donation bin near the Camden West Inn located at 850 US 1 South in Kershaw County, South Carolina was identified as that of a 47-year-old woman who had been missing for several months, according to the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office.
After an autopsy was performed, the woman was identified as Lesley Lemoine, 47.
The decomposing body was discovered by a resident passing by the donation bin who noticed a foul smell coming from the bin that was supposed to only contain shoes and clothes.
The deceased woman’s daughter, Hannah Gates, says she had reported her mother missing months ago, in June 2022, and had been searching for her ever since. Despite numerous unanswered questions, she said the discovery would finally give her and her family some closure.
Speaking to a reporter, Gates said she drove past the Camden West Inn numerous times while searching for her mother, not knowing that her body was lying a few feet away.
The family is struggling to know how Lemoine died and how she ended up in the bin, left unchecked for several months.
According to Kershaw County Sheriff Lee Boan, authorities believe that the donation bin she was found in was where her body got dumped and might not necessarily be where she died. The identification allows them to continue with the investigation.
The Sheriff said that investigators would start tracking her from there, piece together what happened to the woman, and ultimately find the person who put her in the bin.
On Monday, Sheriff Boan said the body appeared to have been left inside the bin for months, adding that it was badly decomposed and the remains were mostly skeletal.
The coroner initially thought it would take at least six months to positively identify the victim because of the state of the body, but her daughter recognized a tattoo on Lemoine’s calf, which sped the process up.
Because of the decomposition, it would take some time for the coroner to find a cause of death and a toxicology report showing if she had drugs in her system when she died.
Lemoine was a drug addict and could have died from a drug overdose, according to her daughter. Gates last saw her mom on March 29, 2022, after Lemoine was released from jail. Gates said she drove her mother to a McDonald’s in Lugoff, and that was the last time she saw her. The mother-daughter duo was not on good terms, and Gates said she was used to her homeless mother disappearing for months.
Gates and her family are seeking legal custody over her mother’s 10-year-old daughter.