A bartender at Coot’s Bar & Grill on Edisto Island has been charged with voluntary manslaughter and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature after a 62-year-old Minnesota woman died following a fall down a set of stairs outside the bar last year, according to Colleton County court records.
Mary Lopez Hunt, 68, faces the charges in connection with the death of Joyce Tomlinson, who was visiting Edisto Beach with her longtime friend Ruth Peterson to celebrate their birthdays together. Tomlinson died more than three weeks after the Oct. 3, 2025 incident, which took place at about 11 p.m. outside the bar.
Peterson, who spoke with Fox News Digital on Oct. 1, 2026, just ahead of the one-year anniversary of her friend’s death, said she had gone to get their car while Tomlinson stayed behind to pay the bar tab. Hearing her friend’s voice, Peterson turned around at the bottom of the stairs and looked up.
She said she saw Tomlinson briefly exchange words with another woman at the top of the stairs, though she could not make out what was said.
“Next thing I know, Joyce had turned around to head back down [the stairs], and this woman runs at her, and with both hands just pushes her, and she just sailed,” Peterson said. “She didn’t fall down the steps. She didn’t roll down the steps… She didn’t touch the steps. She went head first and landed on this concrete slab.”
Peterson said she rushed to her friend’s side and could not find a pulse. Tomlinson was bleeding from her mouth and ears, she said. “I knew it was bad,” Peterson said.
Hunt told authorities that Tomlinson had been belligerent and yelling at bartenders before being asked to leave, and alleged that Tomlinson fell down the stairs on her own, according to court records. A heavily redacted report shows authorities arrived to find Tomlinson lying on the pavement at the bottom of the stairs.
Tomlinson was flown by helicopter to a hospital, where she died a little more than three weeks later.
A friendship spanning five decades
Peterson described Tomlinson as an “itty-bitty, tiny” woman with a “meek and mild” personality who worked as a legal aide helping people resolve financial issues. The two had been friends for 50 years, since their childhood in Minnesota, where they roller skated together. As adults, their children grew up playing together before the families moved apart, though the friendship endured.
The two had long talked about celebrating their 60th birthdays together but said “life got in the way,” Peterson recalled. In 2025, Tomlinson called to say she would visit in October so they could finally celebrate together.
After checking into a rented condo in Edisto Beach, the pair were told by an employee to try Coot’s Bar & Grill, Peterson said. They each had two drinks and danced when a solo performer began playing music. When the bar grew crowded, they decided to head back to the condo to keep catching up.
“I left the bar and walked down the steps, the same steps that we came up [to go] in. I turned around to see how far behind me she was … and that’s when I saw her standing at the top of the steps,” Peterson said. Moments later, Tomlinson was unconscious, and the two friends never spoke again.
At Tomlinson’s funeral, she was remembered as “a loving mom” and “a trustworthy friend,” in a eulogy Peterson wrote and that was read at the service. Tomlinson was not married but left behind a son.
“It’s just been very surreal,” Peterson said. “It’s very hard to believe that she’s gone and that somebody would do that to another person.”
Hunt was initially released on $100,000 bond for each of her charges but was later taken back into custody at the Colleton County Jail in Walterboro after her bond was revoked. It was not immediately clear why. Fox News Digital reported that Coot’s Bar & Grill did not respond to a request for comment, and Hunt’s attorney could not be reached.
