SC SC - Sophia Vandam, 20, and Matayo Vandam, 2, Beaufort, 24 Jun 2023 *last seen in Beaufort before driving to Sumter*

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Updated: Apr. 28, 2021 at 12:46 PM PDT

BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - UPDATE: The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office has apprehended Jonas Washington Jr., 22, wanted in connection with a carjacking last Thursday on Shanklin Road, according to a release.

Washington was wanted by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office for Burglary 1st Degree, Kidnapping and Grand Larceny. Deputies, as well as K-9 and aviation units, were searching near Parris Island Gateway in Burton on Wednesday.

Washington will be transported to the Beaufort County Detention Center.

www.wtoc.com

Beaufort Co. Sheriff’s Office apprehend man in connection with Shanklin Road carjacking

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is looking for Jonas Washington Jr., 22, who is wanted in connection with a carjacking last Thursday on Shanklin Road.
www.wtoc.com www.wtoc.com
 
NameParty TypeCase NumberFiled DateCase StatusDisposition DateTypeSubtypeJudgment #Court Agency
Washington Jr, Jonas JerryDefendant2021A071040010204/29/2021PendingCriminal-Clerk Beaufort County General Sessions
Washington Jr, Jonas JerryDefendant2021A071040010304/29/2021PendingCriminal-Clerk Beaufort County General Sessions
Washington Jr, Jonas JerryDefendant2021A071040010404/29/2021PendingCriminal-Clerk Beaufort County General Sessions
Washington Jr, Jonas JerryDefendant2021A071040010504/29/2021PendingCriminal-Clerk Beaufort County General Sessions
Washington Jr, Jonas JerryDefendant2023A071020038706/30/2023PendingCriminal Beaufort Magistrate
Washington Jr, Jonas JerryDefendant2023A071020038806/30/2023PendingCriminal Beaufort Magistrate
Washington Jr., Jonas JerryPlaintiff2019CP070154007/03/2019Dismissed08/10/2021Common PleasMotor Veh Accid 320 Beaufort County Common Pleas
Washington Jr., Jonas JerryDefendant2019CV071040087205/17/2019Writ of Ejectment06/05/2019CivilEjectm of Trespasser2019CV0710400872Beaufort Magistrate
Washington Jr., Jonas JerryDefendant2020CV071040104010/19/2020Disposed11/04/2020CivilNotice to Quit2020CV0710401040Beaufort Magistrate

 
The boyfriend, according to court records was out on bond for the 2021 charges - Burglary 1st Degree, Kidnapping and Grand Larceny. He was arrested on 6/30/23 for 1167-Trespassing / Entering premises after warning or refusing to leave on request & 0720121005-Ordinance / Fleeing to Evade Arrest/Detention. He posted a PR bond same day (6/30) and is out of jail.

None of this points to his involvement in Sophia & Mataou's disappearance. But darn, it sure makes you give him a good long side-eye!

Where are Sophia & Mataou? She has no car, money or other resources :(
 
"She called me up and said mom if I ever call you up in the middle of the night, no matter what time and say mom I need to come home, is it okay," said Van Dam explaining what her daughter said in phone call to her in May.

Van Dam says while her daughter was living at home, she seemed fine until the morning of June 21.

That's the last time Van Dam would see her daughter and grandson.

"She wasn't acting right, she was talking out the side of her head, repeating herself like five times and she just wasn't acting right," said Van Dam.

She says in their last conversation she worried her daughter may have been having a mental breakdown.

"I said Sophia, I think you are having some sort of psychotic breakdown let me take you to the hospital... she refused to let me do that," said Van Dam
wach.com

Family pleads for help in finding missing Sumter woman and two-year-old son

A family in Beaufort is pleading for help finding 20-year-old Sophia Van Dam and her two-year-old son, Matteo.The Sumter Police Department is investigating af
wach.com wach.com
 
“She left because she was scared. Something must have happened between her and her boyfriend that she felt like she had to leave very quickly,” said Van Dam. “You know, I’m sure that her motherly feeling of needing to protect her son and herself, so she just left with nothing.”

“If something else has happened, and maybe they got away and got into the wrong hands of someone else, I just pray that if people would see them out there with other people, don’t assume that it’s people always helping them,” Van Dam said.
www.wsav.com

Mother of missing Lowcountry woman speaks out

BEAUFORT, S.C. (WSAV) – It’s been nearly 40 days since Theresa Van Dam saw her 20-year-old daughter, Sophia, and 2-year-old grandson, Matteo. Van Dam says the pair was living in …
www.wsav.com www.wsav.com
 
Over a month since Sophia & Matteo vanished, doesn't seem like LE is making in progress? Though it may be happening behind the scenes, hopefully.
 
In a video interview on Aug. 10, 2023, Theresa Van Dam is asked if she thinks her daughter Sophia Van Dam is still alive after last being seen on June 24.

Theresa rubs her hands across it, trying to press away its creases, as she speaks about what may have happened to her youngest child and beloved grandson and the agony of the nearly two months of uncertainty.

“I miss his little smile, you know?” Van Dam says wistfully of Matteo. “And his twinkly little eyes.”

“It is my sister and it is my nephew,” says Sophia’s sister Mariah, “I love them dearly, I love my nephew like he’s my own son.”

The last time Theresa Van Dam saw Sophia and Matteo was at 1 a.m. Wednesday, June 21 at her Beaufort home.

A day later, Theresa tried contacting her daughter by text and got through once by phone. Somebody picked up the phone but did not say, “hello.” Van Dam says she could hear Matteo laughing in the background, and a male voice, too. “And I heard it go, ‘click,’” she said.

Van Dam believes she had reached Sophia at the Sumter house she was leasing.
 
imstilla.grandma said:
In a video interview on Aug. 10, 2023, Theresa Van Dam is asked if she thinks her daughter Sophia Van Dam is still alive after last being seen on June 24.

Theresa rubs her hands across it, trying to press away its creases, as she speaks about what may have happened to her youngest child and beloved grandson and the agony of the nearly two months of uncertainty.

“I miss his little smile, you know?” Van Dam says wistfully of Matteo. “And his twinkly little eyes.”

“It is my sister and it is my nephew,” says Sophia’s sister Mariah, “I love them dearly, I love my nephew like he’s my own son.”

The last time Theresa Van Dam saw Sophia and Matteo was at 1 a.m. Wednesday, June 21 at her Beaufort home.

A day later, Theresa tried contacting her daughter by text and got through once by phone. Somebody picked up the phone but did not say, “hello.” Van Dam says she could hear Matteo laughing in the background, and a male voice, too. “And I heard it go, ‘click,’” she said.

Van Dam believes she had reached Sophia at the Sumter house she was leasing.
Click to expand...
Noting:
  • The last text she received from her daughter was on June. 24.
  • The text “pinged” off a cell tower near Santee Cooper Lake on Interstate 95.
  • Sophia's mother is not aware of any subsequent “pings” from the cell phone.
  • The home Sophia rented has been “released” by LE.
  • This will allow Sophia's mother to retrieve her daughter’s belongings and discover any clues in the house where her daughter was last believed to have been located.
  • She had a wild side, too, family members said, and ran away once, when she was 16. “Ever since then, she was involved with the wrong people running the streets,” Mariah says. “I think Sophia wanted to grow up too quick,” her mother said.
 
www.wjcl.com

FBI: Missing South Carolina mom, toddler may be in Beaufort County

Sophia Van Dam, 20, and son Matteo, 2, were last seen in June
www.wjcl.com www.wjcl.com

Sept 1

BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. —
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and multiple state and local agencies are searching areas throughout Beaufort County for a mother and her two-year-old son.

Sophia Van Dam, 20, and son Matteo, have not been seen since June.

The Sumter Police Department, Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and the State Law Enforcement Division are conducting various law enforcement activities throughout Beaufort County, officials said in a statement.

Authorities did not say what led them to Beaufort County but that law enforcement will be active in multiple locations throughout the day.

In a Facebook post from June 29, Sumter Police said that Sophia and Matteo previously lived in Beaufort but had moved to a Wilson Street, Sumter address.

The pair were last seen on June 24 in Beaufort before driving back to Sumter.
 
1693610302282.png

Several people with FBI markings on their shirts were seen leaving the property in a large four-door Ford truck midday Friday. It is unknown what time they arrived. Authorities also would not comment on what they were looking for or what brought them to that location. Rerock is a narrow gravel Road off Shanklin Road about 8 miles north of Beaufort. The area is heavily wooded. Jail records indicate that Washington Jr. also listed the Rerock Road property as his address. Van Dam, 20, and Matteo, 2, disappeared in June. A June 24, 2023 text was the last time family members heard from her and days later they reported her missing to Sumter police.

The FBI, State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), Sumter Police and the Sheriff’s Office announced earlier Friday that they would be conducting “various law enforcement activities” at different locations in Beaufort County Friday in search of the Beaufort woman and her young son. Angela Viens, a spokesperson with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, said later that the law enforcement presence at the Rerock property was “just one of the things we’re doing as part of our activities today.”

Washington Jr. is currently in jail in Effingham County in Georgia, where he is awaiting trial related to June 2020 charges of possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of or attempt of burglary; attempting to elude a police officer and drug-related offenses, according to court records.

Read more at: https://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/article278874549.html#storylink=cpy
 
www.wistv.com

‘I’m still praying’: FBI joins search of missing Sumter woman and son

Several law enforcement agencies are stepping in to join the search of a missing Sumter mom and her son.
www.wistv.com www.wistv.com

Theresa Van Dam said her daughter Sophia called home just days before her and her son disappeared. According to her mother, there had been a fight between Sophia and her boyfriend that lived with her in her Sumter home.

“She said that she just wanted to come. She was very upset, crying,” Van Dam recalled.

WIS found through a Freedom of Information Act Request the Sumter Police Department responded to a domestic call made from the Sumter home on June 4. Van Dam said after her daughter called home, she spent the next few weeks with her son in Beaufort at their family home and had plans to move back there. Then on the morning of June 22, Theresa Van Dam returned home to find all of Sophia and Matteo’s belongings gone. The last time she spoke with her daughter was June 24 via text.

“She had been texting saying crazy things,” Van Dam said. “She must’ve been having ... because of stressors on trying to make decisions on what she needed to do. I don’t know if someone had gave her something because she was sort of talking out of her mind.”

Investigators with the Sumter Police Department said following several welfare calls to the home, officers found Van Dam’s car parked outside of her Sumter home on June 26. When they went to knock on the door, no one answered. According to an FBI spokesperson, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office along with the Sumter Police Department, SLED and FBI were in multiple locations on Friday actively looking for leads in the case.
 
Law enforcement personnel from the Sumter Police Department, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are conducting various law enforcement activities throughout Beaufort County today in search of a missing Sumter woman and her young son.
1694111232517.jpeg
Sophia Van Dam, 20, and son Matteo, 2, went missing in June. Since then, law enforcement has pursued numerous investigative approaches to locate them. As part of the continued efforts, law enforcement members will be active in multiple locations throughout the day. Because this case remains an active investigation, no other details are being provided at this time.
manninglive.com

Multiple police agencies in search of missing mom and son - Manning Live

Law enforcement personnel from the Sumter Police Department, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are …
manninglive.com manninglive.com
 
PommyMommy said:
Noting:
  • The last text she received from her daughter was on June. 24.
  • The text “pinged” off a cell tower near Santee Cooper Lake on Interstate 95.
  • Sophia's mother is not aware of any subsequent “pings” from the cell phone.
  • The home Sophia rented has been “released” by LE.
  • This will allow Sophia's mother to retrieve her daughter’s belongings and discover any clues in the house where her daughter was last believed to have been located.
  • She had a wild side, too, family members said, and ran away once, when she was 16. “Ever since then, she was involved with the wrong people running the streets,” Mariah says. “I think Sophia wanted to grow up too quick,” her mother said.
Click to expand...
I know it has been a while since this post, but there is no “Santee Cooper Lake”. Most likely she is referring to Lake Marion. There is a long bridge on I-95 which crosses over the lake. That would be a good place to dispose of a phone.

Interestingly, there is an abandoned old bridge parallel to the new bridges.

The Santee Cooper Lakes (Moultrie and Marion) are fairly shallow and probably not ideal for hiding a body. I wonder if this part of the lake has been searched, however.
 
Four different law enforcement agencies were active Friday, Sept. 1 in Beaufort County in an effort to locate a woman and her son, who have been missing more than two months.

According to a Friday release from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), personnel from the Sumter Police Department, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), and the FBI conducted various law enforcement activities throughout Beaufort County in search of Sophia Van Dam, 20, and her son Matteo, 2, who were last seen in June.

According to the release, law enforcement has pursued numerous investigative approaches to locate the pair since June.

Because this case remains an active investigation, according to the release, no other details are being provided at this time, though any questions were referred to the local agencies.

Maj. Angela Viens, BCSO spokesperson, said she had no details she could share “to protect the integrity of the investigation.”

Anyone with information about their disappearance is asked to contact Crime Stoppers anonymously by phone at 1-888-CRIME-SC, online at P3tips.com or by using the P3tips app for Apple or Android.

Search continues for missing woman, son – The Island News – Beaufort, SC

yourislandnews.com yourislandnews.com
 
Last edited:
SUMTER, S.C. (WCSC) - Multiple law enforcement agencies renewed calls for tips that might lead them to a mother and her two-year-old son who’ve been missing since June.

Sophia Van Dam and her son, Matteo, of Sumter, were last heard from on June 24, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokesperson Renée Wunderlich said.

SLED, the Sumter Police Department, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are asking for information that might lead them to the pair.

The two lived in Sumter with her boyfriend before moving back in with her mother, Theresa Van Dam, in Beaufort. The last time Theresa saw both her daughter and grandson was early on the morning of June 22, she told authorities.

The Sumter Police Department found Van Dam’s car outside her home on June 26 but said no one was inside.

Anyone with information can call in an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC or submit a tip online at P3Tips.com or by using the P3Tips app for Apple or Android.

Tipsters may also submit online tips to SLED at tips@sled.sc.gov.


1697935475593.png

www.live5news.com

Investigators ask for help in finding missing SC mother, son

Multiple law enforcement agencies renewed calls for tips that might lead them to a mother and her two-year-old son who’ve been missing since June.
www.live5news.com www.live5news.com
 
"He just always had a spark in his eye," she said, later adding that she misses watching him grow. "There’s an empty hole there."
1697974692927.jpeg
Investigators hope this milestone birthday will encourage anyone with information about them to come forward.

"I still have hope," Van Dam said. "I want them found. I want my family brought back to me."
www.live5news.com

VIDEO: Law enforcement asks for help in search for missing SC mom, toddler

www.live5news.com www.live5news.com

90

“We love her (Sophia) and Matteo very much and we’re waiting to celebrate her birthday in style when she comes home,” mother, Theresa Van Dam said in a press release.
www.southcarolinapublicradio.org

Authorities renew calls for help finding missing mother and son

Multiple law enforcement agencies are once again asking for help finding a missing Sumter mother and her 2-year-old son. Sophia and Matteo Van Dam disappeared from their home in June.
www.southcarolinapublicradio.org www.southcarolinapublicradio.org
 
Were the items belonging to Sophia and Matteo that were taken from her mother's home found?
 
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