‘I wanted to take him somewhere and burn him.’ SC father speaks about daughter’s alleged killer

When Mike and Melinda Winchester could not reach their daughter Clarrissa for the better part of a day, they knew something was wrong.

They talked with her daily, sometimes more than once.

They drove from their home in Travelers Rest to the house where Clarrissa was living with her boyfriend, Tyler Wilkins. He wouldn’t let them in. They called the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.

They watched as deputies brought Wilkins out to a patrol car and as deputies and other officials went in and out of the house.

An hour turned to two, then three. Still they waited. Dismay, fear settled in. The worst had happened, they thought. Wilkins was already accused of firing a gun at Clarrissa and Mike and was out on a bond of less than $4,000.

All Mike could think of was how he could manage to get Wilkins out of the locked patrol car.

“I wanted to take him somewhere and burn him,” Mike Winchester said in an interview with the State Wednesday.

Finally, someone from the Coroner’s Office came out and said they had news no parent wants to hear.

“She’s no longer with us,” Winchester remembers hearing.

He broke down and sobbed.

The woman who had been a daddy’s girl since she was a toddler was gone. She was 22 and seven months pregnant. Winchester said the baby, a boy they were planning to name Grayson, was either stillborn or died for lack of care as his daughter was punched repeatedly until she died.

Two people were in the house as Clarrissa begged for her life, Winchester said.

“They chose to stay out of it,” he said.

A Sheriff’s Office spokesman could not be reached for comment on whether those two people are facing charges.

That was Nov. 9.

Since then, the Winchesters have learned Wilkins was the last person to see his former girlfriend, Jorden Nebling, two years earlier. She was 19 when Wilkins picked her up on Oct. 10, 2020 after a car she had borrowed from a friend broke down.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office is investigating whether Wilkins was involved in that case as well.

Winchester said he and his wife did not think Wilkins was a good match for their daughter, but felt helpless to convince Clarrissa. She saw the good in Tyler Wilkins.

“He could definitely fool a lady,” Winchester said.

Almost exactly a year ago, Clarrissa called her dad and said she was ready to leave Wilkins. Would he pick her up?

When Winchester arrived, Wilkins wanted to explain his side of the story. He was holding a gun.

Winchester said, “I didn’t care. I wasn’t there to start trouble.”

Wilkins raised the gun, pointing it at Clarrissa. Winchester stepped between them. Wilkins fired three shots at his feet.

Wilkins was charged with domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, two counts of attempted murder, pointing and presenting a firearm, resisting arrest, throwing bodily fluids and threatening the life of a public official, a SLED background check showed.

The charge involving the public official concerned Wilkins threatening and spitting on a deputy. He spent about six weeks in jail and posted slightly less than $4,000 bond.

Clarrissa was ready to give him another chance. She worked two jobs, as a clerk and Spark delivery person. She hoped one day to become a forensic technician. Wilkins could not hold a job, Winchester said.

Then she found out she was pregnant. She and her parents were together when the test came back positive. They were overjoyed. The Winchesters went to every doctor’s appointment, bought clothes and all the items a baby would need. Wilkins did not go to appointments, Winchester said. He drank every day.

“She hoped once Tyler met his son things would change,” Winchester said.

Now, the Winchesters are left with the memory of the spur-of-the-moment trips they’d take, often ending up at the beach. Horseback riding, the pet mouse named Kevin. She loved all animals.

“She had a huge heart and would go out of her way to help anybody,” Winchester said.

Winchester said he’s angry the original charges were not taken seriously, that Wilkins was free to complete the act he is accused of starting last year.

The one good thing that could come out of it is that perhaps Nebling’s family might finally get some resolution, Winchester said.

Wilkins, 21, is being held in the Greenville County Detention Center on a no-bond hold, charged with murder, kidnapping, child neglected and the other charges that were pending on the day Clarrissa Winchester was killed.

Winchester and Grayson were buried Nov. 16 in the cemetery at Golden Grove Baptist Church in Travelers Rest.