Florence event highlights missing persons cases

The case of a 75-year-old grandmother from Olanta who disappeared in January while walking alone on a country road was called to mind Friday during a press conference held to bring attention to her case as well as other unsolved cases in Florence and Darlington Counties.

The missing persons case of Claretha McLeod was one of six featured at the Florence stop on the CUE Center for Missing Persons “On the Road to Remember” nationwide tour, said Monica Caison CUE founder.

The Wilmington N.C.-based nonprofit has been conducting the tour for six years to raise awareness and gather new information on missing persons and unsolved cases in different areas.

Florence County Sheriff’s deputies said the last reported sighting of McLeod was on Old Hickory Church Road in Clarendon County.

McLeod’s granddaughter, Mary Epps, who was present at the conference, said she’s not sure how her grandmother got to Clarendon County from her Olanta home.

“It was dark, and it was late, and it was cold,” she said. “The guy picked her (from a church), and he said she was confused.”

The motorist told investigators that he turned around and dropped McLeod off where he found her outside of the Hickory Grove Freewill Baptist Church on the roadway.

About four days after McLeod’s disappearance, a woman came forward and told deputies she’d dropped McLeod off at the end of another road in Clarendon County, but no residents in the area remember seeing her, Epps said.

Catherine Elmore, who is also McLeod’s granddaughter, said Friday that McLeod was a good, friendly woman who could get along with anyone.

Someone out there has answers about her grandmother’s whereabouts and they’re waiting to hear those answers, Epps said.

Darlington County Sheriff’s deputies have been waiting for answers for more than nine years in the case of an unidentified woman whose body was found near a rest stop on Interstate 20.

The Jane Doe case continues to baffle law enforcement, said Florence County Sheriff’s Inv. Kathleen Streett, who is familiar with the case.

“There are absolutely zero leads on this — nothing,” she said.

All deputies have is two clay busts made by forensic artists from the woman’s remains, which were found on Aug. 3, 2000

Investigators, hoping for leads, have placed one of the busts in Darlington County Sheriff’s office.

Caison said CUE has had a hand in solving one case every year since it began its missing persons On the Road to Remember tour.

Florence County Sheriff’s deputies are hoping they are close to solving the case of Randy Delyn Bratschi, who was last seen on Nov. 26, 2004.

Bratschi is presumed dead, Florence County Sheriff’s Capt Mike Nunn said.

In July, two men moving a trailer from Bratschi’s property discovered skeletal remains underneath the trailer.

Investigators still are waiting for the results of DNA testing to determine if the remains found are, in fact, Bratschi, Nunn said.

State Law Enforcement Division agents conducted a nuclear analysis on the remains, but the results of those tests are inconclusive, Nunn said.

Nuclear analysis is a type of DNA testing that typically uses genetic information inherited from the mother.

Investigators have now sent the remains to the University of North Texas for mitochondrial DNA testing, which relies on other types of genetic information, Streett said.

During the conference, Nunn urged everybody involved in the cases to keep their hope alive. He read about a woman who showed up Friday after being missing for 18 years, and so it’s possible to gain closure in any case, he said.

“Just when you think a trail has gone cold, just when you think you don’t have any answers, there’s a break,” Caison said.

The tour began in Roberson County, N.C., on Aug. 18 and will end 12 days and 4,819 miles later in New Hanover County, N.C.

Other cases featured by the CUE in Florence on Friday were:

Wanda Evans Coates, who was discovered dead by her three young children on Aug. 6, 2000.

The body of her husband, Paul Coates, was found a short distance from their Carter Corner Road home.

A vehicle linked to the homicide suspect is a black full size pickup truck.

Lisa Jackson was found shot to death inside her East Pine Street home on Dec. 27, 2006.

Linsay L. Simmons was found slain at the Cole Road Apartments in Lake City on Sept. 6, 2004.

Anyone with information about her death can call Lake City Police Inv. Roger Tilton at (843) 374-5421

Information about Bratschi can be given to Streett by calling (843) 665-2121, ext. 319

Anyone with information about McLeod is asked to call Florence County Sheriff’s Inv. Alvin Powell at (843) 665-2121, ext. 478.

Information about Jackson death can be reported by calling Florence County Sheriff’s Inv. Chad Collins (843) 665-2121, ext. 367.

Information about any of these cases can be reported to Crime Stoppers of the Pee Dee (843) 667-TIPS.