Search warrant: Rutherford Co. man confesses to killing multiple people

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - A federal search warrant unsealed Tuesday has provided new details in the case of a Rutherford County man currently in jail on charges linked to the disappearance of a South Carolina woman last year.

The man, Daniel Printz, was arrested in September on weapons and auto theft charges.

Document: Federal search warrant

Detectives began investigating Printz after a Greenville County, South Carolina woman went missing on August 27, 2021.

As the investigation has unfolded over the past six months, according to the search warrant, Printz has been linked to a missing woman from Charlotte.

The warrant also said Printz acknowledged committing multiple murders, referring to “bodies” in a hypothetical answer he gave state and federal investigators during an October 2021 interview.

Missing South Carolina woman’s case leads to Printz

According to the federal search warrant, detectives were investigating the disappearance of Edna Suttles when they found her Jeep Grand Cherokee in a hotel parking lot in Travelers Rest, S.C.

The warrant details how detectives found surveillance video of Printz and Suttles in the parking lot of a Food Lion in Travelers Rest on August 27.

According to the warrant, Printz bought a pack of yogurt at the Food Lion and then got in Suttles’s Jeep.

The search warrant says Suttles’s Jeep was seen pulling back into the Food Lion parking lot later that afternoon and helped move a “motionless Suttles” from her Jeep to his car.

Investigators said they were able to identify Printz because he scanned his frequent shopper card inside the Food Lion when he bought the yogurt.

Based on the surveillance footage, the warrant said, detectives with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office searched Printz’s home in Rutherford County.

The warrant said that search led detectives to find multiple firearms and electronic devices, which led to Printz being charged with firearms violations in North Carolina.

Jail records show Printz was arrested in Rutherford County in September.

Search reveals Printz’s connection to Charlotte Missing Woman

According to the warrant, when detectives searched Printz’s house in September, they also found personal documents—including a driver’s license, passport and bank documents - that belonged to Nancy Rego.

Rego had been missing from Charlotte since 2017. According to the warrant, Rego’s family members told investigators she had been in a relationship with Printz prior to her disappearance.

“Rego’s family members have reported communicating through text and email with an individual who purported to be Rego; however, the individual declined to meet with, or speak to, any family members,” the warrant said.

Investigators executed a second state search warrant at Printz’s home in late September.

According to the federal search warrant, the second state search warrant executed at his home turned up more additional documents in Rego’s name, along with a wallet belonging to Rego’s mother, Dolores Sellers Gore, and pill bottles for powerful drugs in Rego’s name.

“Investigators also found partially full pill bottles prescribed to Rego labelled ‘Cyblobenzaprine 10mg,’ ‘Tramadol HCL 50mg tab,’ and ‘Lorazepam 2mg tab’ (all dated 2017), as well as black bag containing various items, including zip-ties, a taser, lubricant, and crushed pills in a plastic bag labelled ‘Ativan,’” the warrant said.

Detectives confirmed Printz had power of attorney for Rego, issued in Mecklenburg County, according to the warrant.

Hidden bee house leads to more items, confession

According to the warrant, Printz’s wife and another person were removing birds from his property one day in October 2021 when they found a bee box, for bee raising, on a remote portion of the couple’s property.

“The individual opened the bee box and located a woman’s purse, rope, zip-ties, and medication hidden inside,” the federal search warrant said.

After that discovery, detectives got a third state search warrant to inspect the bee box and other parts of Printz’s property.

“During a law enforcement search of the property, Suttles’s purse, Jeep Grand Cherokee keys, and other various items belonging to Suttles were located inside the bee box,” the federal search warrant said.

“Also located in the bee box was an empty yogurt container. Located approximately 30 feet from the bee box was an interior vehicle panel, along with a black trash bag and a tarp.”

The warrant said the yogurt container was later tested at the S.C. Law Enforcement Division Forensic Services Laboratory and was found to contain traces of Cyclobenzaprine, Tramadol and Lorazepam (commercially known as Ativan).

According to the warrant, investigators brought a police K-9 trained to detect decomposing bodies to Printz’s property but the dog did not locate any remains.

“The K-9 produced a strong alert to the scent of human decomposition at the location where the vehicle panel, trash bag, and tarp were recovered,” the federal search warrant said.

The warrant said that during two interviews in September, Printz acknowledged traveling to South Carolina in August and said the two were friends.

During a third interview, after the additional items were discovered on his property in October, the warrant said Printz made a veiled confession.

“Printz eventually advised he wanted to fully disclose his ‘sins’ and state he knew he would likely spend the rest of his life in prison,” the warrant said. “Printz told investigators he wanted to ‘purge himself’ of details which were not even on the law enforcement ‘radar,’ and that he wanted to ‘come clean’ through an attorney at a later date.’

According to the search warrant, Printz then proceeded to detail people he killed:

“Printz said that he ‘hypothetically’ assisted a close friend with the euthanasia of a family member. He then stated, ‘That is one body.’ The friend then had feelings of remorse and was going to ‘tell.’ Printz described the friend as the ‘second body.’ Printz went on to tell investigators of another friend he was trying to help, but who also ended up dying. Printz did not report the death, but instead disposed of the body so he could keep collecting the friend’s social security benefits. Printz also described an incident in which someone tried to rob him, but the robbery ‘did not work out well for [the robber].’ He stated that after the attempted robbery, he drove to a rural area, disposed of the body, and cleaned up from the incident.”

The warrant said Printz declined to give specific details about Suttles during the interview.

“When questioned specifically about Suttles’s disappearance, Printz declined to provide additional details without a lawyer but stated he could take law enforcement to the location of Suttles ‘within three feet,’” the warrant said.

Printz has not been charged with murder by state or federal law enforcement as of Tuesday afternoon.

When reached for comment, an FBI spokeswoman pointed a reporter to publicly available records but could not provide any additional information.

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