Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008

Cell phone trouble forced woman found dead to leave car

Few new details emerge; authorities continue to look for answers

A few new details emerged Wednesday in the investigation into the death of a young mother found shot to death in her car on an Interstate 26 exit ramp on Sunday.

Natasha Warren left her car and went to a nearby Sunoco convenience store to call for help with a flat tire because her cell phone wasn’t working, said Lt. Chris Cowan, Richland County Sheriff’s Department spokesman.

Inside the store she got change, likely to use a pay phone, Cowan said. She called her job and a family member.

Cowan said investigators know the name of the family member Warren called, but declined to release the name or say whether she reached anyone, citing the ongoing investigation.

Warren spent about 10 minutes total inside the store during the course of four trips, Cowan said.

The car still had a flat tire when Warren was found Sunday afternoon, he said.

She was never reported missing, he said.

Police are not saying where in the car Warren was found or where they believe she was killed.

“All of (those) details of the investigation we’re still working on,” Cowan said.

Investigators are piecing together a puzzle and need the public’s help, he said.

“Somebody in the community may have seen somebody who had stopped to help her or somebody with her,” he said. “If someone was in the area, we need them to come forward.”

Warren, 23, was found shot once in the upper body inside her silver Ford Fusion on Sunday afternoon on the Bush River Road exit ramp.

She had been on her way to her job at the Dixiana post office when she got a flat tire Friday night. She walked to the convenience store and made her first call for help about 10:30 p.m.

A funeral is tentatively set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Calhoun County High School, her sister, Adrian Warren, said. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the H.J. Jenkins Funeral Home in St. Matthews.

Reach Tate at (803) 771-8549.