South Carolina

According to Surfside Beach police records officers responded in reference to a white male wearing only shorts and a t shirt laying by the stairs underneath a carport. Surfside Beach Corporal Blair noticed the person had blood on his face, as well as, a swollen black left eye. Male did not know what day of the week it was.

What happened to Councilman Bruce Dietrich? A fall? A beating? Dietrich suffered six broken ribs, a left side shattered collar bone, left eye shut closed, nose moved, and internal bleeding in the brain. Bruce Dietrich would later die twice in surgery. Officer Blair told the family that Dietrich was found with his cell phone, keys and wallet. Office Blair reports cash found in the wallet. Blair said the councilman was found with his pants off and his shoes placed together on the side of the carport. The family asked if the officer found it strange that Dietrich’s pants were off. Blair told them that is was strange.

“I did not fall,” Councilman Dietrich told us. “It was an ass whipping.” Dietrich told us his next vivid memory was waking up standing in a doorway at Waccamaw Hospital asking a nurse, “Who are you? Where am I?” Charlotte based neurosurgeon Stacia L. Cheadle performed the life saving surgery at which time Dietrich died twice during the process. Dietrich says Cheadle told him there is no way these type of injuries were consistent with a fall.

Councilman Dietrich and his wife, Tina, are currently separated and seeking a divorce. Surfside Beach resident Steve Shore says “If anyone had a motive she [Tina] did,” said Shore. Dietrich asked his wife for a divorce just days before the incident. Shore believes Tina wanted him killed. Bruce Dietrich spent 26 years on the police force and collects full pension. “In the event something happened to him [Dietrich], she collected it the rest of her life,” said Shore.

https://myrtlebeachsc.com/what-happened-to-councilman-bruce-dietrich-a-fall-a-beating/