Witness accounts and the bartender’s statement offer sharply different explanations of what happened outside an Edisto Beach restaurant.

EDISTO BEACH, S.C. — A South Carolina bartender is facing criminal charges more than a year after a Minnesota tourist suffered fatal injuries in a fall down stairs outside Coot’s Bar & Grill, a case built around dramatically different accounts of whether the woman fell on her own or was deliberately pushed.

Mary Lopez Hunt, 68, has been charged with voluntary manslaughter and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in connection with the death of 62-year-old Joyce Tomlinson, according to court records cited in published reports. Investigators say Tomlinson was pushed from the top of a staircase on Oct. 3, 2025, while Hunt told authorities that the Minnesota woman had been disruptive inside the bar and fell while leaving. Hunt has not been convicted, and the competing descriptions of the encounter remain central to the pending criminal case.

The night began as part of a birthday visit between longtime friends. Tomlinson had traveled from Minnesota to South Carolina to spend time with Ruth Peterson, whom she had known for about 50 years. Both women were celebrating their 62nd birthdays. They went to Coot’s Bar & Grill on Edisto Island for food and drinks, but Peterson later told reporters that the waterfront restaurant became crowded and the two eventually decided to leave.

Peterson said she went to retrieve their vehicle while Tomlinson remained behind to settle the bill. From near the bottom of the stairs, Peterson said she looked back toward the restaurant and saw Tomlinson preparing to come down. Peterson described another woman approaching Tomlinson from behind and forcefully pushing her with both hands. According to Peterson, the force sent her friend forward rather than causing her to stumble gradually down the staircase. That account became one of the most important eyewitness descriptions of the incident.

Police arriving at the restaurant found Tomlinson on the concrete below the stairs, breathing but unresponsive, according to reporting based on investigative records. Peterson rushed toward her friend and immediately understood that the injuries were serious. Emergency crews treated Tomlinson at the scene before she was flown to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Doctors performed a craniotomy as they attempted to address swelling caused by the severe head injury.

Another witness provided investigators with an account that went beyond the fall itself. According to reports describing the police investigation, that witness said Hunt had been yelling at Tomlinson inside the business before the confrontation moved toward the exit. The witness told officers that Hunt grabbed Tomlinson by the throat and attempted to pull her outside. Those allegations have not been tested at trial, but they are significant because they would place an alleged physical confrontation before Tomlinson went down the stairs.

Hunt gave authorities a substantially different version. She said Tomlinson had been belligerent and had yelled at bartenders before being told to leave, according to reporting based on the investigative record. Hunt maintained that Tomlinson fell down the stairs rather than being pushed. Peterson has rejected that characterization of her friend and described Tomlinson as mild and unlikely to start a confrontation. The disagreement means the case involves not only the cause of the fall but also what happened in the moments immediately before it.

Tomlinson remained critically injured after being taken to the hospital. Peterson later described the shock of seeing her longtime friend unresponsive during treatment. Despite medical intervention, Tomlinson died a little more than three weeks after the incident. Her death transformed an investigation into an altercation and serious injury into a homicide case in which investigators had to consider whether another person’s actions legally caused the fatal injuries.

The voluntary manslaughter charge carries substantial consequences under South Carolina law. State law defines manslaughter as the unlawful killing of another person without express or implied malice and provides a prison term of two to 30 years for a conviction. South Carolina courts have further described voluntary manslaughter under common law as an unlawful killing committed in sudden heat of passion upon sufficient legal provocation. The filing of that charge is an accusation, however, and prosecutors would still have to prove the charged offense in court.

The case also developed over a longer period than the initial response at the restaurant. Hunt was identified during the investigation and was later taken into custody. Published reports say she had been released on bond but subsequently violated bond conditions. A judge revoked her bond, and WCSC reported in September that Hunt had returned to the Colleton County Detention Center while the case remained pending. Public reporting did not establish the precise conduct that caused the bond violation, and no such detail should be inferred from the revocation itself.

WCSC examined court data to place the manslaughter prosecution in a broader regional context and found that voluntary manslaughter had been charged fewer than 100 times since 2020 across Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester and Berkeley counties. The station also reported that convictions can carry lengthy prison terms. Those figures do not predict the outcome of Hunt’s case. They instead show the seriousness of the charge now confronting her and the significant legal consequences that could follow only if prosecutors obtain a conviction.

The case leaves prosecutors with several factual questions that are likely to matter as it moves through the courts: what happened inside the restaurant before Tomlinson approached the stairs, whether physical contact occurred before the fall and which account of the final moments is supported by witnesses and other available evidence. Reports reviewed for this story have not established whether surveillance footage captured the incident, and no conclusion should be drawn about evidence that has not been publicly disclosed.

For Peterson, the criminal case follows the loss of a friendship that had lasted most of her life. She and Tomlinson had known each other for roughly five decades and had planned to celebrate their birthdays together after spending years living in different places. What began as a reunion ended with Peterson watching emergency crews take her friend away from the restaurant and then spending the following weeks confronting the extent of Tomlinson’s injuries. Her account has since become part of the public record surrounding the prosecution.

Hunt remains accused, not convicted, of causing Tomlinson’s death. The most recent reporting reviewed for this article placed her in custody after the revocation of her bond, with the manslaughter and assault charges unresolved. No trial result or final disposition has been reported, leaving the sharply conflicting descriptions of Tomlinson’s fall for the criminal justice process to address.

Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.