Authorities release cause of death in murdered University of South Carolina student case
Investigators have determined that 'multiple sharp force injuries' caused the death of Samantha Josephson; Jonathan Serrie reports.
University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson's death was caused by "multiple sharp force injuries," law enforcement officials said Monday.
Police say Josephson, a 21-year-old senior at South Carolina's flagship university, was kidnapped and killed early Friday after she got into a car mistakenly thinking it was an Uber. Nathaniel Rowland, 24, has been charged with Josephson's kidnapping and murder.
According to Clarendon County Coroner Bucky Mock and arrest warrants for Rowland, Josephson suffered wounds to her head, neck, face, upper body, leg, and foot. Investigators have not said what weapon was used to kill Josephson.
"Samantha was by herself. She had absolutely no chance. None. The door was locked, the child safety locks were on. She had absolutely no chance," Josephson's father Seymour said Sunday night at a candlelight vigil in Columbia.
Josephson's blood and cellphone were found in Rowland's car the next night when he was arrested two blocks from Columbia's Five Points bar district, authorities said. Her body was found in Clarendon County, about 65 miles away, in an area that Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook described as "very difficult to get to unless you knew how to get there."
Rowland did not appear at an initial hearing Sunday. He remains in the Richland County jail.
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Josephson's family said she planned to attend law school at Drexel University in Philadephia after graduation in May. At Sunday's hearing, Marci Josephson remembered her daughter as "bubbly, loving, kind, and full of life."
"Unlike him [Rowland], Samantha valued human life, and could never harm another soul," Marci Josephson said. "Unlike him, Samantha had love within her heart, and a purpose in her life, the life he brutally ended."
Fox News' Frank Miles, Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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