29-year-old Amanda Marie Sutherland has finally made frontline news.
The former Horry County investigator with the South Carolina Department of Social Services has been charged following a child’s death, authorities announced Wednesday.
Information from the State Law Enforcement Division states that Sutherland, who worked as a Horry County child protective services investigator with DSS, was charged Tuesday with misconduct in office.
She was booked into J Rueben Long Dentention Center on July 6 at 11:50 a.m., and remains in jail under no bond.
Sutherland was assigned to investigate allegations of child abuse and/or neglect on April 21, “and had a legal duty to begin an appropriate and thorough investigation with twenty-four hours of receiving the report.”
On May 5, 2021 one of the children listed in it died, authorities said. On May 12, (21 days later) Sutherland manufactured a “detailed falsification” stating she conducted a home visit with the mother and children, according to the affidavit. None of this was true.
Authorities allege that Sutherland had never met with the parents or children, been to the home, or began an investigation into the allegations or assessment of the welfare of the children.
“To aid in her creation of this falsification, the defendant used facts and notes about the family from the electronic case file, added after the child’s death, to make the falsification appear to be more believable,” the affidavit states.