In the summer of 2005, Reggie and Carol Sumner were living a quiet life in Jacksonville, Florida. Both were 61 years old and recently retired. Reggie, a Navy veteran, was partially blind and diabetic. Carol had ongoing health issues. They had moved from South Carolina just four months earlier, hoping for a peaceful retirement.
Their lives ended in a shallow grave across the state line in Georgia. They had been suffocated, bound, and buried alive by people they had once trusted.
Second Life
Reggie and Carol Sumner were high school sweethearts who parted ways after graduation. Reggie joined the Navy, while Carol married another man. That marriage, and a second one that followed, both ended in turmoil. Carol’s second husband became physically abusive, prompting her to file a restraining order. But he refused to let go.
In a brutal attack, he shot Carol six times in her home. She survived only because neighbors quickly called 911 and paramedics acted fast. Her attacker took his own life by the roadside as police closed in.
Carol spent months recovering and required blood transfusions due to massive internal bleeding. She contracted hepatitis C from one of those transfusions an illness that would later cause her liver cancer.
Years after the attack, Carol reconnected with Reggie. By then, Reggie had retired from CSX Railroad and settled in Charleston, South Carolina. They married in 2001 and moved to Ladson, a small town just outside Charleston.
There, they became close to a local young woman named Tiffany Cole.
Trust Betrayed
Tiffany Ann Cole, born December 3, 1981, was the daughter of one of the Sumners’ neighbors. They treated her like family inviting her into their home, giving her support when her father fell ill, and even selling her their Chevrolet Lumina at a discount, allowing her to pay in small monthly installments. Carol and Reggie had no children together. To them, Tiffany was the daughter they never had.
In March 2005, the Sumners moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where Reggie had previously purchased a home. Before leaving, they made a large profit approximately $99,000 from selling their South Carolina property. During a visit in June 2005, they mentioned this to Tiffany in casual conversation, unaware that this trust would mark the beginning of their end.
Tiffany, now 23, was living with her boyfriend of two months, Michael James Jackson. After hearing about the money, she told Jackson, and the two began plotting. They approached Jackson’s friend, 18-year-old Alan Wade, who then recruited Bruce Nixon, also 18.
The group had one goal: rob the Sumners and leave no witnesses.
Chilling Plan
By early July 2005, Tiffany and her co-conspirators had devised a plan. They rented a Mazda RX-8 and bought NexTel two-way radios, duct tape, gloves, and shovels. Nixon stole four shovels, which they later used to dig a 4-foot-deep, 6-foot-square hole in a remote area across the Florida-Georgia border.
On the night of July 8, they acted.
Wade and Nixon knocked on the Sumners’ door in Jacksonville. When Carol answered, Wade asked to use the phone. She let them in. Nixon produced a fake gun and ordered the couple into their bedroom, where they were bound with duct tape.
Wade disconnected the phone lines. Jackson entered the house and searched for bank account details and valuables. Then the group forced the couple into the trunk of their Lincoln Town Car.
They drove to a gas station, refueled, and crossed into Georgia with Tiffany and Jackson following in the Mazda.
At the burial site, the Sumners aware of their fate cooperated and gave up their ATM PINs. But it didn’t matter. They were lowered, still conscious, into the grave. As the soil began to cover them, they held each other tightly, begging and crying. The dirt filled their mouths and lungs. They died of asphyxiation buried alive in the dark Georgia woods.
The group then drove to Sanderson, Florida, wiped down the car, and abandoned it. They returned to Jacksonville, used the couple’s ATM card to withdraw money, and stayed at a motel. Later, they went back to the Sumners’ home to steal more belongings, including jewelry and a computer, which they later pawned.
Arrests and Investigation
Carol’s daughter, Rhonda Alfred, grew concerned after two days of silence. Her mother always stayed in touch. She reported the couple missing on July 10. That same day, the abandoned Lincoln was found in Sanderson.
Detective David Meacham of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office began investigating. He noticed suspicious bank activity large ATM withdrawals had been made after the couple’s disappearance. The bank froze the account. But soon, someone impersonating Reggie Sumner called the sheriff’s office, asking for help accessing the funds. It was Michael Jackson. He claimed the couple had rushed to Delaware for a family funeral.
Meacham asked to speak to Carol. Tiffany Cole got on the phone and pretended to be her, citing exhaustion from travel and her liver condition. Meacham was unconvinced. He contacted the U.S. Marshals to trace the phone. It led back to Michael Jackson. The rental car GPS also placed the Mazda near the victims’ home on July 8.
Surveillance footage showed Jackson at ATMs, withdrawing cash with the victims’ card. Tiffany drove him in the Mazda, which was also caught on camera.
Detective James Rowan of the North Charleston Police Department arrested Tiffany, Jackson, and Wade at a Best Western hotel in South Carolina. Items recovered from their rooms included the Sumners’ IDs, credit cards, checkbooks, and personal documents. Jackson had the victims’ ATM card in his pocket. Wade had their key ring.
Bruce Nixon was arrested soon after. He cooperated with police and led investigators to the burial site.
On July 16, 2005, the Sumners’ bodies were exhumed. Georgia’s Chief Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death as “mechanical obstruction of the airways by dirt” in other words, they had been buried alive.
Sentencing and Aftermath
In October 2007, Tiffany Cole was convicted by a Florida jury of two counts each of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and robbery. The jury recommended the death penalty by a 9–3 vote, and she was formally sentenced to death in March 2008 at the age of 26.
Her co-defendants, Michael Jackson and Alan Wade, also received death sentences. Bruce Nixon, who had cooperated with investigators and led authorities to the burial site, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in Hurst v. Florida, declaring that Florida’s practice of allowing non-unanimous jury recommendations in capital cases violated the Sixth Amendment. This prompted a statewide review of more than 150 death row cases, including those of Cole, Jackson, and Wade.
Alan Wade was resentenced in June 2022. The jury, this time unanimous, spared him the death penalty and sentenced him to life in prison without parole. In August 2023, Michael Jackson was resentenced and again received the death penalty after a new jury voted in favor by a unanimous decision.
On August 23, 2023, Tiffany Cole’s resentencing concluded with the jury voting 10–2 in favor of death. However, because the new law required unanimity for a death sentence, she was resentenced to life in prison.
While serving time on death row, Alan Wade married a 39-year-old woman named Sigret. Despite Florida prohibiting conjugal visits for death row inmates, Sigret later gave birth to a child and confirmed Wade was the father.
She declined to explain how conception occurred, stating only that she preferred her son hear the story directly from her one day. “He’s in prison, but I’m not,” she told reporters, “It was really hard, but we managed and now we have a son.”
Tiffany Cole remains incarcerated at Lowell Correctional Institution, serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
The Sumners had lived through tragedy, found love again in later life, and tried to help someone they treated like family. But that kindness was repaid with betrayal, torture, and death.
They were not killed by strangers.
They were killed by someone they trusted.
They were buried alive by the daughter they never had.
This article is based entirely on information reported by the multiple reputable news sources as cited. No opinions, interpretations, or unverified claims have been added. Our writers carefully researched these sources to deliver an accurate and factual report.
