Sheriff: Children, Suspect Spent Night With Body

NORTH CHARLESTON - Amanda Kalman Black was killed sometime Thursday night, according to Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon and Chief Deputy Coroner Bobbie Jo O'Neal.

Authorities did not find her body until Friday afternoon, after Amanda Black's brother-in-law called 911.

Cannon said it appears Chesley "CJ" Black Jr. -- now charged with Amanda's murder -- and the couple's two daughters, ages 4 and 2, remained in the Blacks' Fife Lane home until late Friday morning.

Around noon Friday, Chesley Black, Amanda's husband, dropped the couple's 4-year-old daughter off at the St. George home of Amanda's sister, Beverly Holcomb, Cannon said.

"The 4-year-old told her aunt that her mother was dead and that her father had cut her," Cannon said. "That's what set in motion our response to the Fife Lane residence."

Cannon could not say whether the couple's 4-year-old daughter directly witnessed her mother being stabbed, but said that girl became aware enough of what happened to be able to relate the events to her aunt.

Cannon said his office's primary focus was locating the 2-year-old girl who remained wth Chesley Black. He credited the use of technology with bringing a quick resolution to the search for Chesley Black.

The Charleston County Sheriff's Office was in constant communication with SLED, the Sumter County Sheriff's Office and the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, relying heavily on text messages between officers.

A Charleston County SWAT Team and helicopter and a SLED SWAT Team and helicopter were put on standby, and a Sumter County deputy set up surveilance on the Sumter County address where Chesley Black was eventually apprehended, which belonged to a member of Black's family.

Cannon said officers contacted Chesley Black's mother Friday evening and learned his 2-year-old daughter was there, and that she cooperated with authorities to take the girl into protective custody.

Meanwhile City of Charleston Police responded to the Fife Lane home for a domestic disturbance call around 4:15 p.m., and once it was determined the address was outside Charleston City limits CCSO officers were called to take over the investigation.

Cannon said officers had to crawl through a dog door in the rear of the house to gain entry. Once inside officers found Amanda Black's body near the front door and partially inside a front bathroom at the home.

Cheif Deputy Coroner O'Neal said Amanda Black died from a single stab wound to the neck that struck the external carotid artery. Such a wound interrupts the main blood flow to the brain and death ensues fairly quickly, she said.

"What we're here for is for a really bad tragedy within a family where domestic violence has accellerated to the ultimate violence," O'Neal said. "And that's where someone lost their life."

Cannon confirmed that Black had previously been charged with criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature in a 2005 incident in which Amanda Black - then Amanda Kalman - was the victim.

At the time the couple were not married, but at some point Amanda decided not to continue with the prosecution. Chesley Black was ordered to attend anger management courses and drug rehabilitation treatment, which he did not complete.

The couple later married.

CCSO also responded to domestic situation at the Black's home in 2009, but at the time Amanda Black did not wish to file charges, Cannon said.

Prosecuting and preventing domestic violence continue to be a problem, Cannon said.

"In general in criminal domestic violence the victim continues to allow themselves to be talked into not leaving or not divorcing or not prosecuting, and those sorts of things and we continue to try to make a point to women, or men for that matter, anyone who finds themself in an abusive relationship, need to get out of that relationship," he said. "At least bring it to the attention so that some preventative treatment modalities can be put into place."

"Obviously that continues to be a problem," Cannon continued. "People think the person they love has changed, or has convinced them that he or she will never do it again, and we continue to find that is not the case."