Found Deceased SC - Shauna Brown, 39, Columbia, set to travel to school in Alabama but never arrived, 10 July 2022

[citizen_sleuth]

Police searching for missing Columbia woman that never arrived to school – WIS
Police are searching for a missing Columbia woman Monday.

The Columbia Police Department said the 39-year-old Shauna Brown was set to travel to school in Alabama. Investigators do not believe she ever arrived at her destination.

Brown’s mother said the last time she heard from her was on July 10, 2022. Anyone with information about her location is being asked to contact Crime Stoppers.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1549065301173698562

https://twitter.com/x/status/1549067280193327104

 

[GuyfromCanada]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Police are searching for a nurse who went missing after leaving her home in Columbia, South Carolina to head to Alabama.

Shauna Brown, 39, was last seen July 10, according to her mother, Mozella Brown. Brown said her daughter, a nurse at Prisma Baptist Health in Columbia, had left early that morning to head to Samford University in Birmingham to complete her clinicals to become a nurse practitioner. Brown said her daughter had been taking online classes from Samford.

Brown said that by July 15, the family had reported Shauna Brown missing after repeatedly failing to reach her on her phone.

“She did not come back to Colombia for her job,” Brown said. “That’s when this was beyond not just calling in.”

Nurse reported missing during trip to Alabama

Police are searching for a nurse who went missing after leaving her home in Columbia, South Carolina to head to Alabama.

www.cbs42.com

 

[citizen_sleuth]

Shauna Brown, 39, was last seen July 10, according to her mother, Mozella Brown. Brown said her daughter, a nurse at Prisma Baptist Health in Columbia, had left early that morning to head to Samford University in Birmingham to complete her clinicals to become a nurse practitioner. Brown said her daughter had been taking online classes from Samford.

[…]

South Carolina police believe that Shauna Brown may never have arrived in Birmingham.

[…]

Brown said her daughter loved being a nurse and that her going missing is not like her.

“There’s no reason for her to hide or disappear,” she said.

Nurse reported missing during trip to Alabama

Police are searching for a nurse who went missing after leaving her home in Columbia, South Carolina to head to Alabama.

whnt.com

 

[CocoChanel]

Such a promising future for this lady!
I have been in awe of nurse practitioners who make such a difference in the health care of all.
I always think it may be significant when an individual disappears in circumstances that are milestones in their life.
Completing her online studies and heading to her actual clinical exams is a major event.
Perhaps she was anxious and distracted by what was ahead.
If her mind was on the immediate future, I could see her missing a turn or hazard in the road resulting in a 1-car accident somewhere along the route she was on.
And, in situations where a person AND their car is missing, my first thoughts go to bodies of water.
There are probably a number of places along her route that are close to water.
It will be time-consuming to search them all, but I think it is the place to start.

AND what the crime-fighting community needs is inexpensive, easily-accessible technology to conduct water searches quickly and efficiently. Too many cars with missing people are in water. If we can use satellite technology to see things on land, please scientists of the world, give that a bump so that it can see through bodies of water.

IMO

 

[GraceG]

Such a promising future for this lady!
I have been in awe of nurse practitioners who make such a difference in the health care of all.
I always think it may be significant when an individual disappears in circumstances that are milestones in their life.
Completing her online studies and heading to her actual clinical exams is a major event.
Perhaps she was anxious and distracted by what was ahead.
If her mind was on the immediate future, I could see her missing a turn or hazard in the road resulting in a 1-car accident somewhere along the route she was on.
And, in situations where a person AND their car is missing, my first thoughts go to bodies of water.
There are probably a number of places along her route that are close to water.
It will be time-consuming to search them all, but I think it is the place to start.

AND what the crime-fighting community needs is inexpensive, easily-accessible technology to conduct water searches quickly and efficiently. Too many cars with missing people are in water. If we can use satellite technology to see things on land, please scientists of the world, give that a bump so that it can see through bodies of water.

IMO

There are some interesting articles online about using satellites to map the ocean floor but I don't think it's a technology that the average law enforcement community would have access to. Radar can effectively move through or around various environmental conditions, it is much less effective underwater. The electromagnetic waves of radar are absorbed in large bodies of water within feet of transmission. Sonar is the most effective thing for seeing things underwater and it's already in use in LE (article on it here) Tech Helps Police Find Evidence Under Water. But if you have no definitive evidence that a car went into the water (ground evidence showing departure from a roadway, witnesses etc.) I don't think LE has the resources to use that sort of technology (which I am guessing is not cheap) to search every possible body of water in the area of a missing person. I do hope she is found. My sister is a nurse and I know how much of her heart and sweat she's put into getting that training. Shauna must be truly special.

 

[btfly547]

Hard to find much online about her case. Last seen on July 10th, but I wonder when was the last cellphone activity, bank activity or if she even made it to Birmingham. I’m somewhat familiar with the area and ~ 95% of her trip probably would have been on heavily traveled I-20.

Article says she left early in the morning, but does that mean before daylight where it’s more possible to go off the road without being noticed? I-20 is so traveled and always construction that I would think she either has to be close to home if she did go off the road. Just saw another article which says it’s not believed she made it to Birmingham.

Baffling case and I wish there was more to go on.

 

[Elliot_Alderson]

That's a roughly 5.5 - 6.5 hour (366-398 miles depending on the route taken) drive from Columbia, SC to Samford University in Birmingham, AL if I chose the correct campus/building. That's a lot of ground to cover if they're looking for signs of an auto accident.

 

[btfly547]

That's a roughly 5.5 - 6.5 hour (366-398 miles depending on the route taken) drive from Columbia, SC to Samford University in Birmingham, AL if I chose the correct campus/building. That's a lot of ground to cover if they're looking for signs of an auto accident.

It is a lot of miles but majority of those are a well-traveled interstate. I’ve traveled that entire route dozens of times and I find it hard to believe she could go off the interstate.
Other possibilities could be stopping for gas and met with foul play?

Depending on where she lives in Columbia, she had about 2-20 minutes to travel to I-20, interstate the entire time and then another 10-15 minutes off the interstate at the end of her trip if she was going right to the school. I don’t think it would be possible to go off the road unnoticed in Birmingham in the middle of the day but stranger things have happened I guess.

 

[btfly547]

Another thought is I wonder if she was maybe headed to a hotel but that all depends on what time she left home. If she left home at 3am then much more probable she was trying to get to clinical that morning, tired and more likely to go off the road unnoticed. If she left at 6am then I would she was headed to a hotel for clinical the next day.

 

[meanmaryjean]

<modsnip>
Family Nurse Practitioner (M.S.N.) | Samford University

Students are required to be on-campus in Birmingham, Alabama a total of two or three times depending on the plan of study selected. The campus visits are generally two-three days in length and students are notified of the dates at least three months in advance.​

Online FNP programs require these types of campus visits primarily for skills/ simulation labs. This is likely why she was headed there. Clinicals are arranged where the student lives.
My biggest concern is if she worked a night shift and then got in the car to make that long drive. Have we heard anything about her RN employment that might give us some insight into whether she might work nights?
Was any action taken on the part of the faculty when she did not arrive?
I've tried to contact a FB group for Samford FNP students - but it's unclear how active the group is and /or if she was even part of such a group.

 

[meanmaryjean]

This Tweet from LE says she was wearing royal blue scrubs- leading me to think she was driving after a night shift.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1549065301173698562

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Columbia Police say they have found a vehicle registered to a missing nurse not seen in over a week - inside of which is a body.
According to the department, the Georgia State Patrol located a black 2013 Toyota Corolla registered to the missing nurse Shauna Brown wrecked in a wooded area off of westbound I-20 in Warren County, Georgia.

Investigators said the occupant of the vehicle was found deceased and was described only as a female wearing medical scrubs. Police believe the victim had died in a single-vehicle crash on July 10.
While the vehicle is registered to Brown, authorities in both states are awaiting the results of an autopsy and DNA testing to make a positive identification of the victim.

Wrecked vehicle, body found in search for missing South Carolina nurse

Authorities are awaiting the results of a DNA test and autopsy to officially identify the victim.

www.wltx.com

So sad…

 

[NervousNellie]

Columbia Police say they have found a vehicle registered to a missing nurse not seen in over a week - inside of which is a body.
According to the department, the Georgia State Patrol located a black 2013 Toyota Corolla registered to the missing nurse Shauna Brown wrecked in a wooded area off of westbound I-20 in Warren County, Georgia.

Investigators said the occupant of the vehicle was found deceased and was described only as a female wearing medical scrubs. Police believe the victim had died in a single-vehicle crash on July 10.
While the vehicle is registered to Brown, authorities in both states are awaiting the results of an autopsy and DNA testing to make a positive identification of the victim.

Wrecked vehicle, body found in search for missing South Carolina nurse

Authorities are awaiting the results of a DNA test and autopsy to officially identify the victim.

www.wltx.com

So sad…

Wow, she didn't get far.

@meanmaryjean
From this article: Missing Columbia woman hasn't been seen in over a week

"[She] got in the car, after she had put her stuff in there. She was fully dressed because she was going to leave here, get to Birmingham and go right to her clinical... Monday I called no answer...That's when I knew it had to be serious because she would've been back to come to her job, there was no reason not to."

It appears she was wearing scrubs because she was going straight to her clinical when she was to arrive in Birmingham.

 

[meanmaryjean]

RIP my fellow nurse - the world will miss you.

 

[moonriverfarm]

How horrible. Wrecked on the 10th and here we are 11 days later. The car must have been hidden by brush.

 

[btfly547]

Oh wow, I was definitely wrong with thinking this exact thing would be near impossible to happen. I haven’t seen any pics of the accident site, but that must be some kind of coincidence to go off the interstate unnoticed and remain unnoticed for more than a week.

From the article below:
“The investigation currently points to a single vehicle accident during the early morning hours of July 10”

Missing woman may have died in Warren County crash

I’ll take that route next week and I’ll be sure to look around that mile marker to try to understand how that could happen. Hopefully her family is able to have some peace now.

 

[GuyfromCanada]

Confirmed deceased.

Remains of missing Columbia ICU nurse confirmed in I-20 wreck: coroner reports

COLUMBIA. S. C.

wach.com

 

[caradana]

Oh, how terribly sad - what a remarkable woman. Such a tragedy. World is worse for not having her in it.

 

[CocoChanel]

I am so sad for this loss of someone who would have helped so many.
Rest in heavenly peace Shauna.
May your light continue to shine to inspire others to follow in your profession.