JUL 21, 2021
Samantha Josephson case: live coverage of Day 2 of testimony | wltx.com
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Maria Howard told the court she and Rowland had known each other for years before the killing, and in March of 2019, he had been staying overnight at her home regularly.
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She said that night he was at her home when she went to bed. But she said when she went downstairs early the next morning, he was gone.
She said after getting no response to her text messages because he was supposed to give her a ride to work, he pulled up. She said he was still wearing the clothes he had on from the night before.
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After leaving for 10 minutes because he said he had to take his nephew to school, he came back with her work shirt, which was wet.
She said when she got in his car, there was dried blood on the dashboard and beside the seats. In the back, she said there was some blood and a sheet covering most of the seat.
Later that day, he didn't pick her up from work, so she got a ride home from a co-worker. She she got home, he agreed to take her to pick up her young daughter. Once again, she said he was still wearing the same clothes.
She said he was cleaning the car with some kind of chemical that smelled like bleach, and was using cleaning wipes.
The cleaning continued as she drove his car, while was in the passenger seat. She said he also cleaned a small hunter's knife. She said he also said he didn't want her daughter in the car because she said he told her "it had blood on it."
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Later when she saw a news report of Josephson's disappearance and the car that police were looking for, she said "It all made sense to me now.
She said she didn't go to police. "I was scared," she said.
Eventually, after Rowland's arrest, police came to talk to her to get her story.
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Schenk said there appeared to be a significant blood letting throughout the car.
Investigators returned to the Bluff Road facility on April 2, where they pulled out the back seat to search for and document suspected blood. At that time, Schenk said they also cut a piece of the back seat to reveal suspected blood saturated the seat and was absorbed into the seat cushion.
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Kraft said that upon approaching the vehicle, there was a smell of marijuana and asked for a driver’s license and ID. The driver said he had no license on him and admitted to smoking marijuana and was asked to step out of the vehicle. As Kraft told the driver the vehicle matched the description of one of interest, and then the driver is seen taking off in a run into the neighborhood, away from Five Points.
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A female passenger in the front seat of the Impala during the traffic stop and subsequent chase was temporarily detained.
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Before breaking for lunch, other witnesses included former Alvin S Glenn intake officer Travis Parnell Myers, who booked Rowland into the Richland County jail; SLED agent Brian Hudak, a certified expert in Digital Forensics who was tasked to try to retrieve data from the Impala's human response/entertainment interface module; and CPD Investigator James Fisher, who works in the Special Victims Unit and was tasked first with obtaining video from a Wendy's on Garners Ferry Road that helped track Rowland's movements on March 29, 2019.
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Much more at the link - very lengthy article.)
