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by ANDY FANCHER
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Over the past year of reporting on former Spartanburg County sheriff Chuck Wright, I have followed tips and compared notes with sources ranging from active-duty deputies to people familiar with the county’s underworld. All of it has been an effort to retrace decades of alleged corruption tied to multiple eras of the sheriff’s office.
As these conversations continue, one cold case keeps resurfacing in my notebook. It is a homicide largely forgotten by the public — in a county with no shortage of brutal, unsolved killings. What sets this case apart is not only the newly surfaced claims, but that they are coming from people with no apparent connection to one another.
And they all point to the 1990 murder of Anna “Caroline” Lake.
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Described by friends as “an ol’ country girl” and “good people,” the 1988 James F. Byrnes High School graduate was reportedly last seen alive leaving her grandparents’ home in Duncan, South Carolina, around August 28, 1990, her 20th birthday. She left in her car and did not take any extra clothes, according to one of the final news reports on her case.
It would take more than two years after her mother reported her missing — and more than two years of street talk suggesting she had already been killed — before rabbit hunters found her skeletal remains off a wooded cul-de-sac in Wellford, not far from a stretch of Highway 29 that now bears the name Charles L. “Chuck” Wright Highway.
“It’s hurt me for years,” said someone who instantly recognized Lake when shown her senior yearbook photo earlier this month. “She was like a sister to me… As long as I knew her, she never even got in a fight. I think she was scared to fight… Caroline was like me. She packed everything down inside and put on a smile.”
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By all accounts, the petite, brown-haired woman lived and died in the Middle Tyger region of Spartanburg County. Beyond a few early headlines her mother pushed for in the 1990s, the case has drawn almost no attention for decades. That makes it all the more remarkable that sources on both sides of the law are now sharing what they recall.
If you have any photographs, memories or information regarding Caroline Lake, please contact me directly: andy@fitsnews.com.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
(Dynal Nolan/FITSNews)
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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