Police: Woman dies of heart attack after man attempts to break into her home

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF/Gray News) - A man in South Carolina is being charged in connection to the death of a woman whose home he attempted to break into over the summer.

Records obtained by WMBF state Austin Thomas Jones is charged with involuntary manslaughter stemming from an incident that happened July 24 in North Myrtle Beach.

According to a police report and warrants, a woman called North Myrtle Beach police saying a man was punching at her back windows and screaming at her. The man, who police later identified as Jones, was also heard screaming on the other end of the line by dispatchers.

Responding officers placed Jones into detention and noticed he was bleeding from his knuckles. The woman said she didn’t know who he was. Officers also said Jones smelled of alcohol and had red, blurry eyes as they were interviewing him.

Small plastic baggies were also found on him and were later found to contain less than a gram of cocaine in total.

An officer then noticed the woman was breathing heavily and asked her to take a seat to catch her breath. She then became unresponsive and fell out of the chair, prompting police to call EMS.

After CPR was administered, the woman regained a pulse and was taken to a hospital.

The woman died on July 28, according to police.

Documents state police received an autopsy report from the Medical University of South Carolina on Tuesday, saying the woman went into cardiac arrest with “a contributory condition of stress caused by the attempted home invasion.”

Police ruled the death as a homicide and a warrant was then issued for Jones’s arrest. He was taken into custody at his home on Wednesday.

Public records show Jones was released from the J. Reuben Long Detention Center on Friday morning on a $2,500 bond.

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