After 30 years, murder of Bluffton gas station clerk remains unsolved
David Spiegel picked up night shifts at The Pantry in early 1994 to help pay the bills. After long days working as a technician at a now-shuttered Ford dealership in Bluffton, he was the only clerk on duty during late nights and early mornings at the quiet convenience store outside Hilton Head Island.
In the weeks preceding his murder, Spiegel told friends and family he was preparing to ditch his second job. The grueling, lonely nights behind the checkout counter seemed to be almost over.
He never got the chance to quit. Around 2 a.m. on Aug. 3, 1994, an unidentified gunman entered the store and shot Spiegel multiple times in the chest. The 38-year-old clerk was found dead shortly after by a security guard from Hilton Head Plantation. No money was missing from the cash register.
Bob Bromage, formerly a detective for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, helped process the scene in the hours following the murder. Investigators were not able to find surveillance footage that captured the fatal shooting.
More than 30 years later, Bromage is still on the case — now as the director of public safety for the Town of Hilton Head Island. The unsolved 1994 murder is one of dozens of Beaufort County’s cold cases he keeps tabs on, some dating back decades.
“It could have been a targeted attack on David Spiegel, or it could have been an attempted robbery that just wasn’t completed,” Bromage said, adding that police found no witnesses to the murder.
Almost exactly 30 years after the shooting, the building’s roof collapsed under the weight of heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Debby. Whether the landmark convenience store off U.S. 278 will be reopened, repurposed or demolished remains unclear.
Even as the murder scene sits in a near-unrecognizable state, Bromage remains eager for information that could advance the case forward.
“We had some persons of interest early on, but we didn’t get to the point of probable cause to make any arrests,” Bromage said. “It could involve out-of-state people at this point, certainly. Nothing’s out of the question.”
Theories abound: Botched robbery or gang initiation?
A native of Dearborn, Michigan, Spiegel lived in the Grays Hill area with his wife and two children. He was a U.S. Marine veteran boasting nearly two decades of service at Beaufort’s air station.
His wife Rosemary worked at a different Pantry location on Hilton Head and would regularly visit him at work, according to previous reporting by The Beaufort Gazette.
“It’s just hard to believe,” she told reporters following her husband’s killing. “People don’t get shot during robberies. Maybe in Charleston they do, but not Beaufort.”
Rosemary added that her husband was not supposed to have been at The Pantry the morning of his murder. Spiegel usually worked Thursdays through Sundays, but he had offered to cover the Wednesday night shift in place of a coworker.
While a botched robbery appeared to be the most likely cause of the fatal shooting, Beaufort County investigators explored additional motives tied to a personal vendetta or street gang initiation. Police speculated the gunman could have been responsible for two other gas station stickups in the Bluffton-Hilton Head area three months earlier, but “no connection was established,” Bromage said.
Friends and family of Spiegel described him as a gentle giant whose kind, tender demeanor belied his intimidating looks and tall, 225-pound stature.
“It’s sad, people dying when they’re just trying to make a living and trying to pay off bills,” Paul Oates, formerly Spiegel’s manager at the Island Ford dealership, previously said. “It’s just really, really sad.”
Anyone with information on the case is encouraged to contact Maj. Bob Bromage at 843-816-8013.
This story was originally published April 22, 2025 at 3:17 PM.
