‘This wound will never heal’: Beaufort Co. homicide victims’ families demand justice
One by one, family members who have lost someone to homicide in Beaufort County stood to share their tragedy with others who understand.
Some voices shook with tears, others with anger.
Linda Pringle stood at the front of the room that night in late June, holding a photo of her smiling son, Steven “Stevie” Brown, who was 40. He was murdered in 2015.
“I’m just asking anyone that knows anything about the case to please bring the information” to investigators, she said. “Refresh their minds because they already have the information. This I know.”
Sonya Fennell, the sister of Nathaniel Deon Davis, said her brother’s case has gone unsolved for 18 years.
Investigators “don’t contact us,” she said. “We don’t hear anything about it.”
Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Maj. Bob Bromage said the Sheriff’s Office has been “actively” investigating cold cases since Sheriff P.J. Tanner was elected in 1999. In 2010, they started their cold case committee where they routinely reevaluate evidence in these cases. The office, Bromage said, has about 30 unsolved cases dating back to 1972 and relies heavily on witnesses.
“We do have sources in various communities that provide us information, but the reluctancy to come forward is, ... can be, a huge roadblock,” Bromage said.
Fear of retaliation and loyalties are significant impediments to getting witnesses to come forward, according to Bromage. Not every case will have DNA evidence or be a firearms investigation case, he said. In those instances where there’s a “lack of physical evidence,” according to Bromage, the willingness of witnesses to step forward and testify is vital.
Ben Fennell is fighting for answers for his cousin, Jeremiah Lamont Terry, 26, who was shot six times in the back in November. The killing happened at a birthday party in Grays Hill, an unincorporated community near Beaufort.
A little less than a year before his cousin’s murder, Fennell said, another young man was killed in the same area. Law enforcement “failed to police” the area where Jeremiah Terry was shot and killed, he said.
“Had they done it with the first person, my thoughts are that Jeremiah would be here today,” Fennell said.
Banding together
Fennell, along with Terry’s sister, Shanta, and mother, Johnnie Mae Terry, have discussed the case with law enforcement officers. They said they were told police have five people of interest and one has an outstanding arrest warrant. When Shanta Terry, the group’s secretary, asked why the suspect hadn’t been taken in for questioning, police told her they could not find him.
But Shanta Terry said the community has provided tips on the person’s whereabouts, and she has forwarded them to investigators and to the sheriff.
“I understand that they have their own procedures, but we have no traction,” she said.
Bromage disagreed. “If we are being made aware of a wanted subject, we’re going to go pick him up,” he said. “That’s our job.”
Fennell said he thinks part of the problem is that solving murders in poor communities is not a priority, and it’s an issue that stretches far beyond Beaufort County.
“If you live in an impoverished area and you don’t have the funds to pursue an attorney, your chances at getting justice is slim to nil,” he said. That’s why the families formed a support group.
“We’re here to ... try and equal the scales of justice for mothers who have nothing,” he said.
On June 11 and June 18, the group met with the county’s top law enforcement officials — Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner and 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone. Each time, Pringle, whose son was killed in 2015, walked in carrying a stack of newspaper articles and documents with information and possible leads in her son’s case.
Recalled Fennell: “I just about teared up ... because I saw a mother holding onto every hope she could find.”
When they left the meetings, he said, they were disappointed to see the agencies blaming each other for lack of progress.
“So, at the end of the day, those two, in-house fighting, pointing the finger at one another, it’s not solving cases,” Fennell said.
Stone said disagreements with the 24 law enforcement agencies in the 14th Circuit do occur, but “it doesn’t get in the way of prosecuting cases.”
“If you’re dealing with a bunch of strong personalities, people are going to disagree. That’s fine,” Stone said. “Disagreeing is not the problem. Half the time, disagreeing is probably an advantage.”
Stone said that he feels for the families but that he knows next to nothing about a case unless an arrest has been made.
He said he told the group: “’I don’t know that I’m going to be able to help you very much, and no prosecutor will be able to help you very much.’ ... And it’s not just me and my office ... That is a law enforcement function, and I have 24 of them.”
Bromage said claims of arguments were “immaterial” and explained that the Solicitor’s Office is tasked with prosecuting a case beyond a reasonable doubt while the Sheriff’s Office’s job is to investigate and “make the best case possible based on information and evidence.” He stressed that investigators do not give up on these cases.
“Justice delayed is not justice denied,” Bromage said. “There is no shortage of interest or effort.”
Speaking up
The support group meets every two weeks and is focused not only on helping families who have been hurt by homicide but also on empowering law enforcement by providing information, Terry said. That’s why participants are urging the community to step forward and “stop this no-talk mentality,” she said.
“If you don’t, ... then my brother’s [case], along with the [cases of the] other 30 people that have been murdered in Beaufort County, will turn cold and still be unsolved, and the people who did it are still walking around free,” Terry said.
As more people hear about the support group, more people with similar stories come out of the “woodwork,” Fennell said. The families, he said, will continue to work toward finding peace for those left behind.
“This wound will never heal. There’s no healing for it,” Fennell said, “but somebody knows something about what happened that night.”
Anyone with information regarding a cold case may call Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-554-1111.
This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 2:19 PM.
