APR 5, 2019
Who killed Samantha Josephson? Suspect’s family, friends say cops have the wrong man
The family and friends of a 24-year-old Clarendon County man say he couldn’t have been responsible for kidnapping and killing Samantha Josephson.
Nathaniel David Rowland was “passed out” at a house party the night Josephson was abducted in Five Points, said Trey Elmore, a cousin who lives in Texas. Someone else had taken his car.
“I don’t believe it was him in the car,” Elmore told The State. “They only assumed that because he ran (when he was pulled over the next day).”
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“He checked his pockets when he woke up … and he didn’t have his keys,” Henry Rowland told WACH Fox. “So he walked outside to try and find the vehicle. He found the vehicle, opened the door, saw his keys and saw all the blood in the vehicle.”
Rowland is being represented by
Fielding Pringle, chief public defender for Richland and Kershaw counties. She declined to comment.
In the hours leading up to Josephson’s abduction, Rowland posted to Facebook about a dozen times. His final post that night — a comment about his basketball skills — came at 12:23 a.m., about 90 minutes before Josephson climbed into the Impala.
The very next post came at 5 p.m. the following day — an hour after two young hunters found Josephson’s body on a dirt road in Clarendon County. The post read, “I’ll love to do it (with you) but (I’ll be damned) if I can’t do it without (you).”
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Prior to last week, the most serious crime Rowland had ever been accused of was selling a stolen Playstation 4 to a Columbia-area pawn shop in October, according to court records. That case is still pending in court. He was also fined for transporting alcohol in a motor vehicle in Sumter County, and received a handful of speeding and seat belt tickets in Richland, Lexington, Clarendon, Orangeburg and Sumter counties. But Rowland has no record of violent crime, and that leaves friends and family wondering how this could happen.
Rowland was enrolled at S.C. State from 2014 to 2017, according to Sonja Bennett-Bellamy, vice president for institutional advancement and external affairs. The school has had no association with Rowland since 2017, and he did not graduate, Bennett-Bellamy said.
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