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Samantha Josephson decided to separate from her friends and leave the Bird Dog bar alone on Friday afternoon. Then, according to police, the 21-year-old high school student would have called an Uber.
Josephson was released Thursday night in downtown Columbia's five-point neighborhood, a popular nightlife hub, just steps from the University of South Carolina campus. Surveillance footage shows her walking outside, waiting on the sidewalk and holding her phone.
At 02:09, a black Chevrolet Impala parked next to the car park. As pedestrians passed by, Josephson entered the house.
But the Impala was not his Uber, the police would determine it late, and the man driving him never brought her home.
Twelve hours later, Josephson's friends reported his disappearance.
Two hours later, the authorities found her dead.
"Our heart is broken," Columbia police chief Skip Holbrook told a news conference last weekend shortly after meeting with Josephson's family from New Jersey for to go downtown. "They are broken. There is nothing more difficult than standing in front of a family and explaining how a loved one was murdered. "
Police arrested Nathaniel D. Rowland, 24, on charges of murder and kidnapping, Holbrook said.
The abduction of Josephson and the mystery surrounding her death shocked the university community she called home for four years and prompted her friends, foreigners, and university officials to advocate for vigilance at the same time. use of ridesharing services.
In one message, the university encouraged students to use campus shuttles and to "apply best practices when using services like Uber and Lyft". Match the description of the car and the license plate with the information contained in the app, the message says, and always ask the driver the name of the person they're supposed to take before climb inside.
At his press conference, the police chief said the authorities thought Josephson had entered the Impala "wrongly", thinking it was about his ride to Uber.
The next morning, Josephson's colleagues at the Liberty Tap Room in Columbia began to worry that she did not show up for breakfast. Rich Vascovich, a restaurant associate, told a newspaper that Josephson's friends had called him to ask if she had come to work. They had not heard of her either.
"This taught us that something was wrong," Vascovich told the state.
At 1:30 pm Friday, Josephson's friends called the police to report his disappearance. The officers responded to Hub on Campus in downtown Columbia, an apartment complex where Josephson's roommates were waiting for her to come home. They had searched and called without success.
Authorities began collecting information about Josephson's last known location and asked for photos that they could distribute to the media. They found the surveillance footage and spread information about Josephson's clothes: black jeans, light shoes and an orange top.
At about the same time, about 70 miles from New Zion, a town in Clarendon County, two turkey hunters were moving in a wooded and isolated field a hundred meters from a dirt road when They discovered a body.
Soon, said the police chief, the Colombian authorities and members of the Clarendon County Sheriff's Office realized that the woman that the hunters had found in the woods was Josephson. His clothes were matching.
The university then confirmed the death of Josephson in a statement. "Moments like these let me look for words of wisdom and comfort," said USC President Harris Pastides in a statement. "However, I am reassured that the Carolina family is here to welcome those who are suffering."
Authorities shared information on suspicious Impala vehicles and put the community on alert. On Saturday morning, at about 3 am, about 3 hours after Josephson's disappearance, a police officer spotted a black Impala two blocks from Five Points.
The officer parked the Impala, approached the driver and asked him to get out of the vehicle, said Holbrook, the police chief. The driver escaped but was apprehended.
Inside the Impala, authorities discovered a "large amount" of blood in the trunk and passenger seat, which confirmed Josephson's results. The police also found his phone, window cleaner, bleach and antibacterial wipes. The child safety locks were activated in the rear seat.
Authorities have identified the driver as Rowland. He is being held at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. It is unclear whether he got a lawyer, according to prison records.
The police chief stated that Rowland had already lived near the area where Josephson's body had been found, a place he described as "very difficult to access unless you knew how to get there. return".
The homicide investigation is ongoing, Holbrook said. He gave priority to Josephson's family, he said, who had flocked to Colombia. The police chief described his encounter with them as "heartbreaking".
"The words obviously can not describe what they are going through," he said, adding that it was important for the family to understand how seriously the authorities took the investigation. "We are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. It's just as personal for us and it's always a priority. "
"I assured them that we would be with them every step of the way until this is done," Holbrook said.
Those who knew Josephson well said in local newspapers that she was kind, loved and warm. They called it "Sami". They told the state that she was a sister of the Alphaity District Delta and that she was planning to graduate in May before going to the Drexel University at the University. fall to enroll in a law school.
"She was as nice as possible," Vascovich told the state. "She was honestly one of those people you loved to be around."
School and government officials from Josephson's hometown of Robbinsville, New Jersey, issued shock and grief statements. On Facebook, the 21-year-old father said, "with immense sadness and a broken heart," that his daughter was "no longer with us."
"It's extremely difficult to write this and post it, but I love it with all my heart," he writes, a message with a picture of his daughter, his arm tied around his neck. "I could go on writing about her but it's killing me."
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