WASHINGTON: A South Carolina man has been charged in the murder of a University of South Carolina student who may have gotten into her killer’s car mistakenly believing that it was her Uber ride, police said.
Nathaniel Rowland, 24, was charged with the murder and kidnapping of Samantha Josephson, 21, who was last seen outside of Five Points bar in Columbia, South Carolina early Friday morning, Columbia Police Chief William Holbrook said during a news conference on Saturday evening.
Her friends called the authorities to report a missing person about 12 hours later after they had not seen Josephson since she left the bar the night before, he said.
“We believe that she simply mistakenly got into this particular car thinking that it was an Uber ride,” Holbrook said. “She opened the door, got into it and departed with the suspect driving.”
Two hunters found her body in a wooded area along a dirt road in a rural part of a nearby county a few hours after her friends called police, Holbrook said.
“Our hearts are broken. There is nothing tougher than to stand before a family and explain how a loved one was murdered,” he said. “It was gut-wrenching.”
Her father, Seymour Josephson of Robbinsville, New Jersey, wrote a post on Facebook about his daughter’s death.
“It is with tremendous sadness and of a broken heart that I post this! I will miss and love my baby girl for the rest of life,” he wrote.
Police received a number leads and were able to determine through video that the vehicle Josephson got into was a black Chevrolet Impala. Early on Saturday morning, an officer spotted a vehicle matching the description of the car two blocks from the tavern and initiated a traffic stop, Holbrook said.
The officer took the suspect into custody after a short foot chase. Police later found blood and her cell phone along with several cleaning items in his car. Blood was also found in the car’s trunk, Holbrook said.
Uber Technologies Inc. launched a public awareness campaign in July 2017 regarding Uber scams and how riders can avoid getting into the wrong car, suggesting that they check the app to make sure that the car matches the one that they ordered.
If the information doesn’t match up, do not get into the car, the company wrote on a blog post.
Murdered South Carolina student may have thought car was her Uber ride -police
Murdered South Carolina student may have thought car was her Uber ride -police
Another construction crane collapse in Thailand kills 2 people a day after deadly train derailment
- A construction crane has collapsed onto an elevated road near Bangkok, a day after another construction accident in northeastern Thailand killed 32 people
NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand: A construction crane collapsed onto an elevated road near Bangkok, killing two people on Thursday, a day after another crane fell on a moving passenger train in northeastern Thailand and killed 32 people.
The work on an extension of the Rama 2 Road expressway — a major artery leading from Bangkok — has become notorious for construction accidents, some of them fatal.
The crane collapsed at part of the road project in Samut Sakhon province, trapping two vehicles in the wreckage, according to the government’s Public Relations Department.
Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said on Thai TV Channel 7 that two people had died. It was unclear if anyone else had been trapped in the wreckage.
There was uncertainty about the number of victims because the site is still considered too dangerous for search teams to enter, said Suchart Tongteng, a rescue worker with the Ruamkatanyu Foundation.
“At this moment, we still can’t say whether another collapse could happen,” he said, citing dangling steel plates. “That’s why there are no rescue personnel inside the scene, only teams conducting on-site safety assessments.”
At the site of Wednesday’s train derailment, the search for survivors ended, Nakhon Ratchasima Gov. Anuphong Suksomnit said. Three passengers listed as missing were presumed to have gotten off the train earlier, but that was still being investigated.
Officials believed 171 people had been aboard the train’s three carriages, which were being removed from the scene Thursday.
The crane that fell, crushing part of the train, was a launching gantry crane, a mobile piece of equipment often used in building elevated roadways.
Police were still collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses and have not pressed charges, provincial Police Chief Narongsak Promta told reporters.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry reported a South Korean man in his late 30s, was among the dead.
The high-speed rail project where the accident occurred is associated with the plan to connect China with Southeast Asia under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
In August 2024, a railway tunnel on the planned route, also in Nakhon Ratchasima, collapsed, killing three workers.
Anan Phonimdaeng, acting governor of the State Railway of Thailand, said the project’s contractor is Italian-Thai Development, with a Chinese company responsible for design and construction supervision.
A statement posted on the website of the company, also known as Italthai, expressed condolences to the victims and said the company would pay compensation to the families of the dead and hospitalization expenses for the injured.
Transport Minister Phiphat said Italthai was also the lead contractor on the highway project where Thursday’s accident took place, though several other companies are also involved.
The rail accident had already sparked outrage because Italthai was also the co-lead contractor for the State Audit Building in Bangkok that collapsed during construction last March during a major earthquake centered in Myanmar. The building’s collapse was the worst quake damage in Thailand and about 100 people were killed.
Twenty-three individuals and companies have been indicted, including Italthai’s president and the local director for the company China Railway No. 10, the project’s joint venture partner. The charges in the case include professional negligence and document forgery, and Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation has recommended more indictments.
The involvement of Chinese companies in both projects has also drawn attention, as has Italthai and Chinese companies’ involvement in the construction of several expressway extensions in and around Bangkok where several accidents, some fatal, have occurred.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Wednesday the government was aware of the rail accident and had expressed condolences.
