A missing 22-year-old South Carolina man was found shot to death behind a Target, authorities said.
Robert Clark Jr. was reported missing on Feb. 19 and discovered inside a Toyota Tundra behind the Bluffton Target on Thursday morning, Feb. 21, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
A handgun was found in his vehicle and the initial appearance was that Clark died as a result of a gunshot wound.
“A deputy patrolling the area of Target this morning here in Bluffton spotted Robert’s vehicle we had put out to the public and ran the tag number, and of course it came back to Robert Clark Jr. of Hilton Head Island,” Capt. Bob Bromage of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office told WTOC.
An autopsy was scheduled to be performed at the Medical University of South Carolina to determine the cause and manner of Clark’s death.
Missing 22-year-old man found dead behind the Bluffton Target. Here's what we know
The body of 22-year-old Robert Clark Jr., who's been missing from Hilton Head Island since Monday, was found behind the Target store off of U.S. 278 in Bluffton, S.C., on Thursday, Feb. 21. The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office is investigating.
由 The Island Packet 发布于 2019年2月21日周四
Family members said they hadn’t heard from Clark since texting with him on Monday afternoon and he was last seen at his apartment on Hilton Head on Monday morning. Relatives reported him missing the day after he vanished out of concern for his safety.
Clark graduated from Hilton Head Preparatory School in 2014, director of development at the school Margot Brown said. “We loved him dearly, and he will be sorely missed by our prep community,” Brown told The Island Packet.
Responding to the announcement by the sheriff’s office, Facebook users conveyed their condolences. “Praying for his family and … praying for Beaufort County,” said one.
“My heart breaks for my dear friend and her family. Praying, god be with you!” added another. “Good Lord what is happening in our small town? This is absolutely horrible. Something has to be done. Praying for his family,” another said.
Anyone with information was asked to call the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office at 843-255-3414.
Missing Woman Found Dead in Church Parking Lot
A California woman who went missing on Valentine’s Day was found dead on Feb. 20, authorities said.
Brooke Harris, a 49-year-old mother of two, vanished on Feb. 14 in El Dorado Hills after calling her husband that morning.
Sheriff’s deputies were called six days later to a church in El Dorado County over a report of an unresponsive female in a vehicle.
The woman was identified as Harris, the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said. She was declared dead by first responders.
The vehicle she was found inside of was her own, the sheriff’s office said. While her cause of death is under investigation, officials said there was no evidence of foul play.
According to the sheriff, Harris’s cellphone was found at her house on the day she went missing and surveillance cameras captured her, apparently alone, at the Red Hawk Casino near Placerville in the afternoon that day.
“We have investigated Brooke’s family and have found no evidence to suggest that anyone was involved in her disappearance,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement before the body was found. “The family has been completely cooperative throughout this entire investigation … at this time, we believe that Brooke left on her own volition.”
According to The Sacramento Bee, Harris was a registered nurse who was fired in 2014 and later surrendered her license for drinking alcohol while working. The Bee reported that Harris had written in a petition for reinstatement submitted last April to the Board of Registered Nurses that she drank vodka because she suffered severe anxiety about seeing her husband.
Her license was reinstated by the state board just days before she disappeared after she submitted six letters of recommendation, including one from her husband, with a three-year probation period. Harris’s husband, Manny Harris, is a firefighter and a registered nurse.
The sheriff’s office acknowledged information about Harris’s past was circulating but said that it was “not helpful in assisting us in locating Brooke.” It added, “While this information is public record it is information that can be hurtful to the family members and the wellbeing of anyone involved.”
A friend of Brooke Harris, Kasey Frey, said that she was volunteering at an organization that Frey is also involved with.
“I have known Brooke for two years through the dog rescue that I’m a board member of. She started volunteering for us. She is a very loving person,” Frey told Fox 40 prior to the discovery of her body. “We had an immediate connection, an immediate friendship. But this is nothing I would ever have thought would have happened.”
