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South Carolina College Student Got Into A Car She Mistook For Her Uber Ride And Didn’t Make It Out Alive, Cops Say
Murder suspect Nathaniel Rowland activated the child locks once Samantha Josephson got into his car, preventing her from escaping, according to authorities.
Police have arrested a suspect in the slaying of a South Carolina college student who they say was killed after mistakenly getting into a vehicle she thought was her Uber ride.
Nathaniel David Rowland, 24, has been charged with murder and kidnapping after chilling video shows 21-year-old Samantha Josephson getting into a black car police believe Rowland was driving early Friday morning as she left a local bar, the New York Post reports.
Josephson can be seen standing near the road on her cell phone, reportedly trying to find her Uber driver before the black car pulls up into a parking spot next to where she’s standing and she’s seen getting into the back seat of the vehicle.
The University of South Carolina student’s body was discovered less than 24 hours later along a rural road by a group of turkey hunters in an area near where Rowland once lived, according to The State. She had numerous wounds to her head, neck, face, upper body, leg and foot, warrants said.
“Samantha was by herself,” her father Seymour Josephson told the local paper. “She had absolutely no chance.”
Rowland was arrested Saturday morning after a police officer noticed a vehicle matching the description of the car Josephson was last seen getting into. Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said during the traffic stop officers observed blood in the car that was later confirmed to be Josephson’s, local station WIS reports.
Investigators would also find her cell phone, bleach, window cleaner and more blood in the vehicle. Investigators also discovered that the child locks were enabled so Josephson would have been trapped in the back seat of the car, the Associated Press reports.
Josephson, who would have graduated this spring, had planned to start law school in the fall. In a court hearing Sunday, her mother Marci Josephson described her daughter as bubbly, loving, kind and full of life.
“There are no words to describe the immense pain his actions have caused our family and friends,” she said in her comments to the judge. “He’s taken away a piece of our heart, soul and life.”
She described Rowland’s alleged actions as senseless and vile.
“It sickens us to think that his face was the last thing that my baby girl saw on this earth,” she said, asking that her daughter’s name never be forgotten.
Those who knew Josephson described the political science major as energetic and selfless. Her boyfriend Greg Corbishley told The State that he had last talked to her on Thursday during a FaceTime call.
During their last conversation, he said she told him that he was “her person” and that she loved him.
“I see that even in the short time that she was here, how many people she positively impacted with her energy,” he said.
The family plans to hold a funeral service on Wednesday in New Jersey, where Josephson grew up.
