USC student Samantha Josephson’s cause of death released by officials

State officials on Monday released the cause of death for a University of South Carolina student who was found dead after being abducted from the Five Points area early Friday.

An autopsy on 21-year-old Samantha Josephson indicated she died of “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to a Monday news release from the State Law Enforcement Division and Clarendon County Coroner Bucky Mock.

It was not immediately clear Monday if agents recovered a weapon used in the killing, and SLED spokeswoman Kathryn Richardson said they could not comment.

Josephson’s body was found by turkey hunters in rural Clarendon County on Friday afternoon, just over 12 hours after she was last seen getting into a car outside a Five Points bar that, police say, she mistook for an Uber.

Early Saturday morning, just over 24 hours after Josephson was abducted, Columbia police saw a car matching the description of the suspect’s vehicle near Five Points. After a vehicle and foot pursuit, an officer arrested the driver, 24-year-old Nathaniel Rowland, who has been charged with murder and kidnapping.

In arrest warrants released Sunday, SLED agents wrote that Josephson had “numerous wounds evident on multiple parts of her body to include her head, neck, face, upper body, leg and foot.”

In announcing Rowland’s arrest Saturday evening, Columbia police said SLED agents found Josephson’s blood inside the car and trunk, along with her cellphone and cleaning supplies.

This story was originally published April 1, 2019 at 4:35 PM.