A DeKalb County woman was reported missing six months ago. Authorities believe she was killed at a beach resort in South Carolina before her body was driven back to Georgia ― and now they think they know who did it.
In November, Duluth police contacted North Myrtle Beach police as they looked into the whereabouts of 53-year-old Kristin Laymon. She hadn’t been heard from since late September, just a couple of weeks before her adult daughter reported her missing Oct. 9.
At the time, the daughter told Duluth police that calls to her mother went straight to voicemail, and she noticed Laymon hadn’t been using her bank account, according to the missing person report. In fact, the daughter noticed the account had been overdrafted, and there was a $1,000 charge for Bitcoin, “which is not something Ms. Laymon dabbles in,” the report stated.
Investigators eventually determined that Laymon’s last known location was a North Myrtle Beach resort along South Ocean Boulevard. Police confirmed she arrived there Sept. 22 with a man named Bornold Eberhart. Officials said they did not believe the two were dating but that they likely had “some sort of intimate relationship.”
Police said Laymon’s daughter knew of Eberhart but hadn’t had any form of relationship with him.
“Further investigation revealed that an argument occurred between Ms. Laymon and Mr. Eberhart in the early morning hours of Sept. 23,” North Myrtle Beach police said in a statement Thursday. “Ms. Laymon was last seen alive entering an elevator at 2:12 a.m. (that day). Detectives have reason to believe Ms. Laymon was murdered in the early morning hours of (the same day).”
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, police Chief Amy Prock said her detectives and countless others from several agencies “worked tirelessly to ensure justice will be served in this case.”
Detectives said they believe Eberhart left South Carolina on Sept. 24 in a car that Laymon had rented and drove it to DeKalb with Laymon’s body in the back.
He was arrested March 3 in DeKalb on a charge of murder and extradited to Horry County, South Carolina, on March 8.
The following day, DeKalb police, the GBI and other agencies located skeletal remains believed to be Laymon, officials confirmed. The discovery was made in a wooded area of Whitehall Forest Court, a dead-end road that leads into a secluded neighborhood off Bouldercrest Road just inside I-285. It was not clear what led them to the area.
While authorities are awaiting confirmation of the identity from the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office, Prock said, “I want to extend our sincerest condolences to the family and loved ones of Ms. Kristin Laymon during this difficult time.”
“While nothing can ever fully heal the wounds left by this incident, we hope that the arrest of Mr. Eberhart will in time bring a sense of closure and justice to Ms. Laymon’s loved ones,” she added.
In a statement Thursday, the GBI said the case “underscores the significance of law enforcement partnerships as it required coordination amongst several law enforcement agencies in multiple jurisdictions.”
North Myrtle Beach Lt. Mike Swarthout echoed the sentiment, saying, “I’ve been in the investigation bureau about six years now, and this is the most complicated investigation I’ve ever been involved in. There were thousands of manpower hours put in this.”
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