Father’s disappearance exposes shocking affair and murder plot
When a South Carolina father vanished, police had no idea it would lead to the discovery of a shocking affair, a body found in a river and allegations of child abuse.
Greg Rice, 46, mysteriously disappeared from his Myrtle Beach home in 2020. The evidence seemed to lead to his ex-girlfriend and mother of his four children, Meagan Jackson, who transported dead bodies for a living.
A new "20/20" episode, "Driven to Death" airing Friday, Oct. 17, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu.
You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week's episode by listening to "20/20: The After Show" weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by "20/20" co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
On Oct. 3, 2020, Jackson arrived at Rice's apartment to drop off their children for the weekend. They shared custody after their 15-year relationship ended.
However, Jackson found no one at home. She said it was odd since she claimed to have spoken to Rice the night before.
Rice's friend, Ryan Michniewicz, noted that it was highly unusual for Rice to miss anything associated with his children.
"Greg had the kids almost every single weekend. That's the one thing that mattered the most with him," he told "20/20."
Jackson reported Rice missing, and investigators found his keys stuffed in a cushion on the front porch.
Michniewicz also noted that Rice told him something alarming before his disappearance.
"Greg mentioned to me that if something was to happen to him... he didn't off himself," he said.
Then, investigators said he got two calls from Jackson, and a trace on his phone location showed it leaving with her.
Suspicious of Jackson, investigators found that the body transport van she used for work was seen on cameras leaving Rice's neighborhood several days before she reported him missing. They also traced Rice's phone records and found that he was home most of the night. Then, investigators said he got two calls from Jackson, and his phone location was traced to be seen leaving with her.
Jackson told investigators she had spent the entirety of the night in question with Chris Dontell, a married coroner she worked with. Authorities would later learn that she and Dontell had been having an affair for about a year.
Before Rice went missing, Dontell's wife Erica said she received some troubling anonymous texts.
"It just said, think you should know that your husband is having an affair and got somebody pregnant," Erica Dontell told "20/20." "Oh, and I think you should know it's Meagan Jackson."
Jackson and Chris Dontell denied the allegation, and Jackson told the Dontells she believed Rice had sent the messages.
On Nov. 7, 2020, over a month after Rice vanished, Donna Sue Soles was catfishing with family members in the nearby Pee Dee River when they found what appeared to be a human body wrapped in a tarp and held down by cinderblocks.
"It looked like the tarp was just laid there. And then once you got the paddle and we lifted it, that's when we seen the ratchet straps tied around the bottom parts of the legs. It was around both. And then around the head on the other side," Soles told "20/20."
"I dropped a paddle. It scared me, and I started crying. I was like 'This can't be true,'" she added.
The body was soon identified as Rice, but the medical examiner found something even more disturbing -- five gunshot wounds on his body.
Authorities said they discovered that the tarp Rice's body was wrapped in had been sold at a local hardware store. They said surveillance footage showed Dontell buying all the items used to dispose of the corpse.
Police arrested Dontell and Jackson for Rice's murder. When they searched her home for evidence, they allegedly discovered the children's harsh living conditions.
Their rooms were outfitted with alarms that would go off if they opened the doors, locks that could only be closed from the outside, and windows that were nailed shut, according to investigators. The food pantry was also kept under lock and key, officials said.
Amidst all this, investigators also said they found an empty gun box that would have held a long rifle pistol consistent with the weapon authorities said was used to shoot Rice.
Jackson's children were placed into emergency protective custody and she was charged with four counts of unlawful conduct toward a child.
Dontell lost his job because of the arrest, and he and Jackson were placed under house arrest, but they kept violating the order to see each other, according to authorities.
At Dontell's 2024 murder trial, he pleaded guilty to charges of being an accessory to murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He also agreed to testify against Jackson.
Jackson was charged with first-degree murder and went on trial in June 2025. She pleaded not guilty, with her defense attorney arguing that there wasn't enough evidence to convict her of Rice's murder.
In an exclusive new interview with "20/20" correspondent John Quiñones, Dontell recounted the night he says Jackson killed Rice.
"My emotions were high, but handled the body just like would any other body," he told "20/20."
According to Dontell, he and Jackson saw Rice walking on the side of the road near his apartment on the night he vanished.
"I pulled up, a few feet, stopped, and she opened the door and in one motion... spun out of the seat, pulled a gun out and shot him over and over. Didn't see it coming. Neither did he," Dontell told "20/20." We picked him up out of the road and put him onto the stretcher that was in the back of her van."
Dontell said he then used the tarp and cinderblocks to hide Rice's body in the river.
At the trial, investigators also figured out who sent the anonymous texts revealing the affair to Dontell's wife Erica. Although Jackman had told the Donnells that Rice had sent those messages, the authorities claimed she was behind those texts.
"Through the analysis of her cell phone, it was able to be proved that Meagan Jackson was the actual one sending these to Erica Dontell," forensic expert Ben Wells told "20/20."
Jackson's defense called no witnesses but accused Dontell of being the sole perpetrator of the murder. Dontell denied the allegation.
"The only person that actually has a motive to get rid of Greg Rice is Chris Dontell. He can't be trusted," defense attorney Case Brittain said.
Jackson was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, while Dontell was sentenced to 15 years in prison for being an accessory to murder and five years for conspiracy to murder.
The child abuse charges against Jackson were dismissed, as prosecutors told "20/20" that they did not want to make the children testify.
"She's doing life in prison, so why put them through that if we're not going to gain anything," Mary-Ellen Walter, one of the case's prosecutors, told "20/20."
At his sentencing, Dontell lamented ever becoming involved with Jackson.
"To simply keep saying 'I'm sorry,' it just doesn't feel right, and I don't know that I can effectively articulate the depth of the combination of love, pain, regret and compassion I feel for those kids and for everyone who loved Greg," he said.
Jackson is appealing her conviction, while Dontell's lawyer filed a motion to reconsider his sentence.
In a call with "20/20," Jackson denied shooting Rice and the abuse allegations, saying she loves her children very much. In a letter to "20/20," she claimed that Dontell didn't tell the truth in his testimony.
Jackson's younger children are being raised by one of Rice's other children, their older half-brother from their father's previous relationship.
Jackson and Rice's daughter Savannah spoke to "20/20" about the message of hope she wants to share from her father's murder.
"There was a point in time living in that house where I thought I was never going to get out and no matter how hard and horrible your environment can be, you can always make it out and you can turn your life around and be the person that you want to be," she said.
