Hundreds gathered at the Statehouse Wednesday night to hold a candle light vigil for one of the state’s most well-known lobbyists, who has been missing for four days.
Tom Sponseller, 61, the CEO of the South Carolina Hospitality Association, was reported missing by his wife Meg Saturday night, when he didn’t come home from his downtown Columbia office. She told officers it was unlike him to not answer his phone or let someone know where he was going.
Sponseller seems to have vanished and Columbia Police Department has little to go on after they found his car in his office garage in downtown Columbia.
About two hundred friends, family members, fellow lobbyists and members of his church, St. Mary’s Episcopal in Irmo, lit candles and sung hymns in front of the Statehouse, where Sponseller worked for his industry for 22 years. But mostly they prayed for his safe return.
Neighbor Mike Johnson reminisced about the many adventures their families have taken together, from Home Depot to the California wine country.
“Tom means so much to me and my family and both my daughters. We’ve all cried ourselves to sleep this week. Tom I don’t know what happened or where you are but I pray you’ll return to us safe. We may go back to wine country and need a driver,” Johnson said.
A teary-eyed Rick Erwin, who head the Hospitality Association’s restaurant division, called Sponseller a “true professional” for his leadership.
“He is the best lobbyist that I have ever been around. He’s intelligent, smart, he knows how to talk to people and he knows how to get things done in this house behind me,” Erwin said.
Anyone with information about Sponseller’s whereabouts should call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.
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