Chief: A trip sharing error resulted in the death of a SC college student



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The man accused of killing a woman who was riding in his car thinking it was his Uber drive that had locked the doors of his back seat so that the doors could only be opened from the outside, according to the police. Caroline from the south.

Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook also said the investigators found the victim's blood in Nathaniel David Rowland's vehicle. Rowland, 24, was arrested and charged in the death of Samantha Josephson, 21, of Robbinsville, New Jersey.

The investigators did not say what they thought Rowland had done to Josephson since she entered her Black Chevrolet Impala in Columbia's Five Points Entertainment District, around 1:30 am, until his body is thrown into the woods by a dirt road in Clarendon County about 65 miles (105 kilometers) away.

Josephson had numerous injuries to the head, neck, face, upper body, legs and feet, according to the arrest warrants issued Sunday by the Law Enforcement Division. The documents do not say what was used to attack it.

Josephson's blood was found in Rowland's truck and car with his mobile phone, Holbrook added, with bleach, window cleaner and cleaning wipes.

"It was a bad scene," said the police chief at a press conference held Saturday night.

The hunters found Josephson's body Friday afternoon, just hours after being dropped, while he was in an area "very difficult to access unless you knew how to get there" said Holbrook.

Rowland recently lived in the area, said Holbrook.

The night following the Josephson kidnapping, a Columbia agent noticed a black Chevrolet Impala about two blocks from the Five Points bars where Josephson was kidnapped. The driver ran but was stopped after a short chase, Holbrook said.

Rowland is accused of kidnapping and murder, Holbrook said. He was detained in Richland County Jail. We did not know if he had a lawyer.

Safety advocates urged students to match the vehicle's color and model, the license tag number, and the photo of their carpool drivers before boarding a vehicle.

"She simply, mistakenly got into the car thinking that it was an Uber ride," Holbrook said.

The crime shook Columbia, the state capital, where the University of South Carolina is one of the main drivers of the economy. Josephson was a student at the school.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and his wife, Peggy, asked a Twitter message to pray for Josephson's family.

"Peggy and I are devastated and overwhelmed by the loss of their beautiful daughter Samantha by the Josephson family, she was one of the brightest young stars," McMaster wrote.

Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP. Read his work at https://apnews.com/search/jeffrey%20collins

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