Man found dead near USC parking garage fell from ‘significant height,’ coroner says
The Richland County Coroner’s Office has released the identity of a man found dead Thursday morning near the Bull Street parking garage on the University of South Carolina’s campus.
The body of Oliver Sherlock Holmes, 26, of Columbia, was found at 5 a.m. where Bull Street deadends at Blossom Street, Coroner Gary Watts said. An an autopsy found Holmes sustained blunt force injuries to the head consistent with a fall from a significant height, Watts said. How Holmes fell is still under investigation.
The Bull Street garage is a five-story building.
Thom Berry, a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokesman, said Holmes was not believed to be a student or employee at the University of South Carolina.
“An emergency notification was not issued because there was no immediate (ongoing) danger to the community,” a bulletin on the University of South Carolina’s Division of Law Enforcement and Safety website, said. “Law enforcement is unable to determine time or cause of death at this time.”
USC police were notified of the body in the 600 block of Bull Street near Blossom Street around 5 a.m. Thursday morning, according to the bulletin.
USC police called SLED around 6 a.m., according to Wes Hickman, a University spokesman. Anytime there is a death on campus, SLED takes over the investigation.
Columbia and USC police officials closed portions of Blossom Street, Pickens Street, and Bull Streets for several hours.
Anne-Kathryn Flanagan contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 28, 2015 at 8:56 AM with the headline "Man found dead near USC parking garage fell from ‘significant height,’ coroner says."