As the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office gears up for its biggest murder trial since Alex Murdaugh, there appears to be a big issue with Michael Colucci — the man accused of killing his wife Sara Colucci in 2015.
UPDATE | 5/3/2024: On May 2, 2024, Luna Shark Media learned that the AG's office provided us with incorrect information about Colucci's bond status when we first asked on March 20, 2024 and did not correct it after we asked multiple follow up questions. Please see this article detailing the timeline about how we discovered the discrepancy.
Court documents obtained by Luna Shark Media show that Michal Colucci —the 54-year-old former jewelry store owner from the Charleston, SC area — is apparently not following his bond conditions.
The Colucci case is one of many examples that show South Carolina’s system for tracking defendants accused of violent crimes while out on bond and awaiting trial proves itself to be ineffective and deeply broken.
Michael Colucci was arrested in May 2016 after authorities say he killed his wife, Sara Lynn Moore Colucci, and allegedly staged the scene to look like a suicide by hanging via rubber hose.
His 2018 trial, which was prosecuted by Megan Burchstead and Joel Kozak of the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, ended in a hung jury after Colucci’s expensive defense team led by Andy Savage dominated the courtroom and confused the narrative enough to get a hung jury.
Colucci has mostly been out of jail on bond since he was initially charged for murder in 2016, though it appears that his bond conditions are being treated as merely suggestions.
Luna Shark Media, as a part of our Colucci series on True Sunlight Podcast, reached out to Robert Kittle, the public information officer with the South Carolina Attorney General's office in March. According to Kittle, Colucci is on house arrest at “his parents' home.”
Except both of his parents are deceased, and their properties were sold years ago.
The initial 2016 bond put Michael under house arrest at a home on Murray Boulevard in Summerville, the residence of his mother and stepfather, Doris and Ivo Colucci.
11 months later, 80-year-old Ivo reportedly shot and killed Doris in April 2017 at their North Charleston jewelry store. Charges were later expunged due to Ivo Colucci’s well-documented dementia. The Murray Boulevard home was then sold in 2018, according to Dorchester County property records.
In May 2017, the state filed a motion to revoke Colucci's bond, saying that they had information he wasn't living at the Murray Boulevard home and that he wasn't abiding by the rules that he stay home other than work, religious services, and medical or appointments.
Instead of revoking his bond, Judge Kristi L. Harrington amended the conditions, and put Colucci on house arrest on Legare Road in Edisto— at another home owned by the Colucci family.
In early 2018, Michael Colucci was apparently evicted from the Legare Road home by other Colucci family members so the home could be sold to settle Ivo Colucci's estate. According to an incident report filed by Colleton County Sheriff's Office Lt. Ruben Carter, family members reported that they had evicted Colucci but he was still driving by the property.
Just 10 days later, Colleton County authorities found themselves at the Legare Road home again. This time, Colucci family members were reporting it had been broken into and vandalized.
It is unclear where Michael Colucci lived after his eviction from the Legare Road home in spring 2018. During his trial in late 2018, he was ordered to wear an ankle monitor and live in a hotel with his attorney, Andy Savage.
It is also unknown where Michael lived after trial, and there are no updates to the terms of house arrest in the public index, meaning that Michael is officially on house arrest at a home that the Colucci family no longer owns — the Legare road home was sold in 2019, according to Colleton County Property records.
An address for Michael doesn't appear in a public record until late 2023 when a court filing listed his address as Osceola Street in Edisto, an address that is not on any of the bond paperwork.
In November 2023, attorneys representing Michael in a civil wrongful death suit filed by Sara's estate withdrew as counsel. Michael signed the paperwork using the Osceola Street address in Edisto Island, South Carolina.
Two months later, in January 2024, Edisto police officers took a report from a man who said he was walking near the same Osceola Street address when a German Shepherd dog purportedly owned by Michael Colucci attacked his terrier.
In late March, Luna Shark Media reached out to Kittle with SCAG again to ask for clarification in an attempt to reconcile information from court records with information from our sources.
"The only information I have is what I told you," he said.
Luna Shark Media continues to file Freedom of Information Act requests and pore over hundreds of pages of documents as we prepare to stream the Michael Colucci trial live for our Soak up the Sun premium members beginning on May 13.
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Contact Beth Braden
Beth Braden
Beth Braden is an award-winning investigative journalist who cut her reporting teeth in the hills and hollows of East Tennessee. She joined the LUNASHARK® Media team in 2023 as a researcher and journalist who handles FOIA requests, wading through and analyzing public records, and connecting with sources. She also provides a monthly update for premium members called Soundbites, which is a monthly review of everything happening at LUNASHARK®, and she occasionally writes and records for True Sunlight. Beth has her own solo podcast called Time of Death, which explores the 1992 homicide of Tommy Griffin and Connie Branam in East Tennessee.
Prior to joining the team, Beth’s newspaper work had taken her into deep-dive stories about faith-based serpent handling and Appalachian coal mining, as well as data journalism work to analyze euthanasia drug irregularities at an animal shelter, uncover the most dangerous intersections on her beat, and see whether or not the local judge’s rulings passed muster when cases were appealed to the state appellate court. And of course, she’s been to her fair share of court hearings, city council meetings, and board of education work sessions.
In addition to her newspaper experience, her byline appears on HGTV.com, nytimes.com, and other internationally known websites.
In her spare time, she enjoys quilting, rock climbing, strange museums, and good cups of coffee.
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