Found Deceased SC - Samantha Josephson, 21, Columbia, 29 March 2019 *Arrest*

[Gardenista]

From the security cam video, she doesn't look pass-out drunk to me

From experience, I know you can't always tell when someone is pass out drunk.

 

[Gardenista]

Warrants: Dead USC student suffered numerous wounds

 

[Herat]

Warrants: Dead USC student suffered numerous wounds

Oh, my heart goes out to her family to have to read all this.

It sounds like a vicious, aggressive attack with her fighting back intensely. And it sounds like she was inside the vehicle, and he would have had to stop the car, and open the back door. The wounds to the leg and foot sounds as if she tried to kick him, maybe when he opened the door.

This is an out of control rage kill.

And for all his stalking and lurking to pick up a vulnerable young woman, using the child locks on doors & windows to imprison her, he really didn't control the situation well. Got a lot of blood on his fancy, well-kept car.

( You can tell this vehicle is his pride & joy, his identity, his freedom. Why risk damaging the interior with what sounds like a knife? Getting blood all inside it? There's a big disconnect in his psychology here- even for a guy planning a murder)

He must have had a lot of blood on him, probably also some cuts & scratches

 

[scmom]

Horrifying to think that she didn't realize she was in danger until it was too late for her to call for help.

 

[Trudie]

I think he was just lurking in that big parking lot, waiting for a woman to do exactly what Sami did. He knew the EXACT most likely spot for a woman who had been in the bars to be standing to get her Uber ride home.

Google Maps

And his plan was always to drive to New Zion. This was never an attempted burglary. This was premeditated murder. He also knew where in New Zion to dump a body. She was 40 ft from a rarely-used obscure dirt road.

I sure hope LE can pick up his vehicle on security cameras or highway cams.

30 seconds later and she would have been safe in the Uber

I agree, he was lurking, perhaps had done so many other times. If he had no destination, really no reason for him to be out at that time, imo.

 

[LarkBunting]

Sounds like she fought like hell & hopefully, gave him hell & possibly injured him in the process. Reminds me of Mickey Shunick & how hard she fought, trapped inside a vehicle...
Absolutely heartbreaking.

 

[Herat]

I agree, he was lurking, perhaps had done so many other times. If he had no destination, really no reason for him to be out at that time, imo.

I'll bet LE can find security cam footage that shows him out there about 2am on multiple nights at the end of the week, hanging in that parking lot, circling the block

But we really need to know more about the woman "cooperating with LE" caught in the car with him the second night.

 

[PommyMommy]

Warrants: Dead USC student suffered numerous wounds

I was afraid of this from the way they described the vehicle. Poor Sami.

"Arrest warrants released Sunday morning said 21-year-old Samantha Josephson had numerous wounds to her head, neck, face, upper body, leg, and foot. The documents didn't say what was used to attack the University of South Carolina student."

 

[Herat]

I think there's a furious, furious jealousy and anger in this warped perp.

He apparently lives some of the time in a little podunk town of ~30 people. What do local people think of him?

8 years ago as a high school kid he loved God and his brother and basketball.

Yet he drives and highly maintains a somewhat showy vehicle not really suited to farm or rural life.

He hangs out in the big college town 80 miles away. He went briefly to a local college, but was never good enough for USC. His prospects to improve in life are slipping away- do we even know how he makes enough money to insure and maintain his pride and joy? He hangs around areas with college students, slightly younger than him. He apparently has a child and is responsible enough to have a car seat for a baby in his vehicle, so his baby mama is somewhere in the scene.

But he spends substantial time late at night 80 miles from his home lurking, looking to harm a vulnerable one.

 

[Heather30024]

I think he was just lurking in that big parking lot, waiting for a woman to do exactly what Sami did. He knew the EXACT most likely spot for a woman who had been in the bars to be standing to get her Uber ride home.

Google Maps

And his plan was always to drive to New Zion. This was never an attempted burglary. This was premeditated murder. He also knew where in New Zion to dump a body. She was 40 ft from a rarely-used obscure dirt road.

I sure hope LE can pick up his vehicle on security cameras or highway cams.

30 seconds later and she would have been safe in the Uber

Yeah, I hope they are requesting that all security cameras on the way to New Zion are checked. It may not be significant, but I wonder why/when/where he put her in the trunk. Somewhere outside of Columbia otherwise it would be too risky that someone would see him doing it, but before he got to New Zion because once he's there what would be the point of doing that. Where was this place in between? And why did he stop there instead of going straight to New Zion if that was the original plan? Maybe he only decided to go to New Zion after he killed her, which may suggest that perhaps he hadn't planned on killing her to begin with but a battle ensued which led to him killing her.

 

[PommyMommy]

'A parent's worst nightmare': Sympathy and $30K pour in for family of Samantha Josephson
Words of support and thousands of dollars in donations are pouring in for the family of a University of South Carolina student who was killed over the weekend.

A online fundraiser created to raise money for funeral and memorial costs for Samantha Lee Josephson had surpassed $30,000 as of Sunday morning, with almost 1,000 people having left comments of condolence.

[...]

The original fundraising goal for the campaign was $5,000, but contributions to the fund eclipsed that number within the first 24 hours.

[...]

"It's a parent's worst nightmare," a mother of a USC student wrote.

[...]

PHOTOS: Samantha Josephson memorials pop up in Five Points, where USC student last seen

 

[margarita25]

This made me think of something pertaining to crime and easy victims. Almost every grocery store offers some type of delivery service now. Usually outsourced (Shipt, instacart, etc). Prime oppty for either the delivery person to be attacked (they carry groceries into your house if requested) or the resident. Haven’t heard of it yet, but I’m sure we will. I’ve used them before with no issues at all. Most of the delivery people were college students or moms.

(Indeed. I take measures with this as well. I ask them to please just leave the groceries at the door. So there’s no interaction.

Recently I had a food delivery guy who said he couldn’t find my place and wanted me to go meet him in the lot. He kept insisting and pressuring. I said absolutely no way and reported him to the company.)

 

[Herat]

Yeah, I hope they are requesting that all security cameras on the way to New Zion are checked. It may not be significant, but I wonder why/when/where he put her in the trunk. Somewhere outside of Columbia otherwise it would be too risky that someone would see him doing it, but before he got to New Zion because once he's there what would be the point of doing that. Where was this place in between? And why did he stop there instead of going straight to New Zion if that was the original plan? Maybe he only decided to go to New Zion after he killed her, which may suggest that perhaps he hadn't planned on killing her to begin with but a battle ensued which led to him killing her.

I think he had rehearsed this scenario in his mind over and over on those long drives from New Zion to Harden St to lurk around for vulnerable coeds.

I think he had a stop-off point already scouted out and that's where he opened the back door & assaulted her. Likely also put her in the trunk there.

This is a fantasy scenario he has been playing over and over in his head for a while (MOO, MOO) He has mentally rehearsed it for a while.

He wouldn't want to have to drive for a hour and a half with a screaming agitated woman in the back who could potentially attack him or damage that vehicle by kicking the seats, the windows, getting to the locks. I wonder if the baby seat was damaged? I think he had to have attacked her fairly soon after getting out of Columbia proper.

I think he had been planning this for a long time, the drive, the lurking, the child locks, but my guess (MOO) is that this is actually the first time he had been successful in kidnapping a woman.

I hope USC and LE can see if other women have had an experience approaching "the wrong car" or having someone like him call out to them while they were waiting for a Uber. Hopefully Uber is also cooperating to get a list of all women who called for Ubers in that location after dark.

I actually think this is his first abduction. But not his first try

 

[Trudie]

IMO has he not be apprehended, he’d be right back in the college area again.
Someone mentioned he is “privileged”. How so?
Every privileged person I know does not drive an Impala.
In fact most have a driver, lol.

 

[Herat]

IMO has he not be apprehended, he’d be right back in the college area again.
Someone mentioned he is “privileged”. How so?
Every privileged person I know does not drive an Impala.
In fact most have a driver, lol.

I don't recall him being called "privileged" and sure don't see him this way. I see a kid from a real backwater with no real prospects in life who is devoted to his $28K car and is obsessed with college kids, specifically likely white college coeds.

For a guy so devoted to basketball in high school, he is spending a lot of time during the best part of March Madness driving around in the dark lurking for victims......

And I think this really is a psychological compulsion. The car was still dirty from her blood and he was right back in the same area 24 hours later. He had only made what sounds like feeble attempts to clean it. Not like he spent 4 hours at a car wash or something

 

[PommyMommy]

Accused murderer of USC college student has no past violent criminal record in SC

A Clarendon County man charged with the murder and kidnapping of a 21-year-old University of South Carolina student in Columbia has no record of violent crimes in South Carolina, according to legal records.

[...]

USC will hold a vigil for Josephson on Sunday evening on the field behind the school’s main recreation center, university spokesman Jeff Stensland said.

Rowland has a number of traffic violations in Clarendon, Sumter and Lexington counties, mostly for not wearing a seatbelt, according to court records.

He was charged with obtaining a signature or property under false pretenses in case involving a Columbia pawn shop in 2018. The case is pending.

[...]

 

[Herat]

Is there something else we are missing about the Five Points area and him?

Why is he hanging there at all?

LE hasn't released any information about a job, family, school in that area. Where does he stay most of the time? Where is the baby and the baby mama?

I sure hope that female acquaintance can fill in some of the blanks here.

 

[Herat]

dbm

 

[Herat]

Where is the pawn shop in Columbia?

I recall from way back upthread it was in Oct 2018

What was he pawning? Was it stuff a woman would be carrying in a purse? Jewelry?

 

[Gardenista]

Maayan Schechter‏Verified account @MaayanSchechter
Samantha's father has posted on his FB page a funeral will be held Wednesday at Congregation Beth Chaim in NJ. After a burial, the family will sit shiva, the week-long mourning period in Judaism when someone dies.