A Minnesota woman was killed while on vacation after she was shoved down a flight of stairs by a raging female bartender, prosecutors allege.

Joyce Tomlinson, 62, traveled to Edisto Island in South Carolina nearly a year ago, on October 3, 2025, to visit her best friend, Ruth Peterson, for a fun girls’ trip.

The best friends of nearly 50 years were leaving Coot’s Bar and Grill when Mary Hunt, a bartender, was accused of shoving Tomlinson down a 16-step flight of stairs.

Hunt faces up to 30 years in prison after the victim died three weeks later.

Peterson recounted to Fox 8 Live how she and Tomlinson were having a nice night celebrating her birthday before her friend tragically died.

‘We were there to have fun, and you know, hang out; girlfriends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time,’ Peterson said to the outlet. ‘It got too crowded.’

The best friend said they decided to leave, and she headed out to get the car while Tomlinson stayed behind to get the bill.

‘I turned around to see if she had come out yet. Joyce turned back around to head down the stairs,’ said Peterson.

‘The lady just took off running and pushed her with both hands as hard as she could in the back.’

She said Tomlinson’s body sailed down the staircase without touching a single step, landing on a slab of concrete headfirst.

‘At that point, I ran over to her and I couldn’t find a pulse,’ Peterson said. ‘She was bleeding from the ears and from her mouth. I knew it was a bad head injury.’

First responders found the victim unresponsive but breathing and bleeding on the concrete.

Peterson said she knew it was a serious head injury and saw blood coming from her friend’s ears and mouth.

A witness told police that Hunt was yelling at Tomlinson inside the bar and that the confrontation continued to escalate, with the bartender allegedly grabbing Tomlinson by the throat and trying to take her outside.

But Hunt told a different story, claiming that the victim was belligerent, yelled at bartenders and fell down the stairs herself.

Tomlinson was airlifted to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and underwent a craniotomy in an attempt to save her life.

However, after weeks in the hospital, she died on October 26, 2025.

A GoFundMe created for Tomlinson, who leaves behind a son, described her as a ‘kind and giving soul to everyone who knew her.’

‘In her no-nonsense way, she always knew the right thing to say when you needed to hear it,’ the fundraiser reads.

Hunt was charged with voluntary manslaughter, a rare charge that involves emotional intent.

Attorney Brady Vannoy described the offense to the outlet: ‘Voluntary manslaughter, there’s not enough time to cool off.

‘If there’s a cooling off period, it’s going to be a murder. A cooling-off period is a period of time where somebody would have adequate time to reflect on the situation and what they’re doing.’

Judges in the surrounding counties where the crime took place sentence defendants to 20 years or longer more than 50 percent of the time when they face voluntary manslaughter charges.

Hunt was released on a $100,000 bond but violated its conditions and is locked up at the Colleton County Jail.