Full Notification

For Immediate Release
Friday February 23, 2018

On January 31, 2018 the Polk County Sheriff’s Office received a report from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office of a missing person. The person reported as missing was Karen Denise Jenkins. Ms. Jenkins was last seen on her way to Polk County, N.C. in November of 2017. After an extensive investigation involving dozens of interviews, Detectives with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office learned that Ms. Jenkins was in a dating relationship with a Polk County resident named Jeremy Bradshaw.
Detectives requested the assistance of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation in conducting an interview with the boyfriend, Jeremy Bradshaw on Friday February 23, 2018. During this interview Bradshaw led investigators to a family member’s home on Old Highway 19 just outside of Columbus, N.C. and indicated that he had placed Ms. Jenkins’ deceased body in an abandoned well on the property in November of 2017. After obtaining a search warrant for the property, investigators uncovered what are believed to be human remains buried in the well just as Bradshaw had indicated. Mr. Bradshaw was subsequently charged with Concealing a Death and Obstruction of Justice and is currently being held in the Polk County Jail under a $50,000 bond. Other charges could be forthcoming pending further investigation.
At this time the cause of death is still under investigation and the remains have not been positively identified. The remains are being sent for an autopsy. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has been assisted in this investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Tryon Police Department, the Town of Tryon, and the 29-B District Attorney’s Office.