Man found dead outside USC parking garage, second body discovered in area in 16 months

Authorities have not learned the identity of a man who was found dead Sunday afternoon outside a University of South Carolina parking garage just off Blossom Street.

“We don’t think he is a student because it is an older person,” said Richland County Coroner Gary Watts, adding no foul play is suspected, but the person could have fallen from an upper floor of the parking garage, which is a five-story building.

The body was discovered about 12:30 or 1 p.m. outside the parking garage at Blossom and Bull streets, Watts said. The garage is near the city’s Maxcy Gregg Park, just west of Five Points.

An investigation is ongoing, Watts said.

This is the second time in the past 16 months a body was discovered outside the parking garage. Oliver Sherlock Holmes, 26, of Columbia, was found outside the garage in May of 2015.

An autopsy found Holmes sustained blunt force injuries to the head consistent with a fall from a significant height, Watts said in 2015.

Thom Berry, a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokesman, said Holmes wasn’t believed to be a student or employee at the University of South Carolina. Anytime there’s a death on campus, SLED takes over the investigation.

This story was originally published November 13, 2016 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Man found dead outside USC parking garage, second body discovered in area in 16 months."