COLUMBUS – Four detectives with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office recently received Region C awards for the county’s most recent murder that occurred on March 31 at the on-ramp of Hwy. 74 in Columbus. 

Capt. B.J. Bayne, Lt. Randall Hodge, Sgt. Jay Turney and Sgt. Todd Arwood received citations for “the outstanding dedication and professional manner in which they serve Polk County citizens.”

The sheriff’s office investigative unit received the recognition from the Region C Criminal Justice Advisory Committee that represents Rutherford, Polk, McDowell and Cleveland counties.

Polk’s detectives were nominated to receive the award based on their investigation of the murder of Destry Horne that occurred on March 31 of this year.

Horne was a box truck driver who had stopped on the on-ramp of U.S. 74 in Columbus where two South Carolina men are accused of shooting and killing him.

Quintae Darelle Edwards, 23, of 15 Dunbrook Dr., Simpsonville, S.C. and Kwame Fernanders, 22, of 319 Pastel Court, Spartanburg, S.C. were charged by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office with first-degree murder.

Horne, 51, was of Lilesville, N.C.

Edwards and Fernanders were spotted on surveillance video along with Kayla Black, also of South Carolina, at the BP gas station near Polk County High School just prior to the murder, which occurred early in the morning. The three are also suspected of the armed robbery of a Landrum convenience store on the same morning of the murder.

The three were identified and arrested in Florida after they allegedly invaded a home and kidnapped a family in Gainsville, Fla. after the Columbus murder. Polk County is still awaiting their extradition from Florida to face the charges in Polk County.

Polk Sheriff’s Office detectives solved the case and issued warrants on Edwards and Fernanders in just a few days.