After the search for a missing South Carolina woman ended in a grisly discovery in western North Carolina, a suspect has pleaded guilty to kidnapping her resulting in her death.
80-year-old Edna Suttles was reported missing from Greenville County in August 2021.
Federal investigators have been involved in the search for Suttles and a federal search warrant unsealed in March shows detectives found surveillance video of suspect Daniel Printz getting into her Jeep at the Food Lion in Travelers Rest on the day she went missing.
The warrant said Suttles’ belongings including a purse and her Jeep keys were found hidden in a bee box on Printz’s property on Kiser Road in Rutherford County. In the bee box, investigators say they also found rope, zip ties and rubber gloves.
In May, her body was found in a wooded area off of Harris Holly Springs Road in Rutherfordton, NC.
According to a new federal criminal complaint that was unsealed on Tuesday, federal agents say Printz has a prior conviction for kidnapping in Michigan and is a person of interest in other the disappearances of other elderly women.
Investigators say they identified Printz through his Food Lion frequent shopper card.
According to the court documents, when investigators initially questioned Printz about Suttles, he told them he was a handyman and considered Suttles a friend but denied involvement in her disappearance.
In October 2021, a cadaver dog was brought to Printz’s property and alerted to a strong scent of human decomposition on a vehicle panel from Suttles’ car and Printz’s wife’s car, which they say he used in kidnapping Suttles.
At Printz’s home, investigators say they found pill bottles for cyclobenzaprine, tramadol and lorazepam that were prescribed to 66-year-old Nancy Rego, a woman missing out of Charlotte. A yogurt container found in the bee box with Suttles’ belongings that was bought at the Travelers Rest Food Lion on the day she disappeared tested positive for these drugs, according to federal investigators.
Federal investigators say that after kidnapping and drugging Suttles, Printz zip-tied her and suffocated her with a bag.
Printz was captured on surveillance video moving Suttles, who was motionless, to his wife’s vehicle outside the Food Lion in Travelers Rest and wiping down Suttles’ Jeep, according to the court documents.
When Printz was questioned again in October, he told investigators he wanted to come clean about his “sins” and would relay details to a defense attorney about the deaths of five different people.
Printz appeared in court in Spartanburg County on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to kidnapping resulting in the death of Suttles.
He faces a sentence of up to life in prison. He is set to be sentenced Tuesday afternoon.
Federal investigators say Printz is also a suspect in the disappearance of Rego. According to the court records, Printz was listed as having power of attorney for Rego’s bank account, which continued to receive Social Security deposits and had transactions almost every day after her disappearance.
All daily transactions on Rego’s bank account stopped after Printz was arrested, according to the FBI.
Rego’s family has received emails from someone claiming to be her since she disappeared, but the person always declined to meet or speak with the family.
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