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by JENN WOOD
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On a spring evening more than twenty years ago, Silene “Erica” Eaddy walked away from her Columbia, South Carolina home.
Two days later, firefighters responding to a brush fire in a secluded area of Lower Richland County found the 15-year-old’s badly beaten body burning in the woods.
Erica had been brutally attacked – and then set on fire.
More than 22 years later, no one has been arrested for her murder – yet investigators with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) continue to believe Erica’s case can be solved if only those who know what happened finally decide to talk.
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ERICA’S FINAL HOURS
Erica was placed with Brenda McCoy as a foster child prior to McCoy adopting her at the age of three.
“With her being as small as she was, I didn’t want her to go from house to house,” McCoy told The State newspaper in 2017. “I wanted her to have a stable home.”
Those who knew Erica described her as outgoing, friendly and quick-witted. She loved singing and dancing, participated in a community gospel choir and dreamed of becoming either an artist or a hairdresser.
Friends reportedly turned to her for advice — even as Erica struggled to navigate difficulties in her own life.
The death of her adoptive father when she was a young child had a profound effect on Erica. She also wanted to find her biological family but had been unable to locate them.
“Erica was a sweet child but a lost child,” McCoy said. “She was trying to find her family. She always wanted to know where they were.”
As Erica entered her teenage years, her relationship with her mother became strained. She began leaving home without permission – and running away for days at a time.
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Investigators said she was trusting — sometimes dangerously so — and would accept rides from people she barely knew. She also had a wide social circle, complicating investigators’ efforts to determine whom she may have been with during the final hours of her life.
At the time of her death, Erica left Dreher High School and was attending the Alston Wilkes Youth Services School, where investigators said she had been doing well.
At approximately 7:30 p.m. EDT on the evening of Thursday, April 15, 2004, a neighbor saw Erica leaving her family’s home on Fountain Lake Drive. The neighbor was hosting a cookout across the street and reportedly called out to McCoy – warning her that Erica was trying to sneak away again.
When the neighbor asked Erica where she was going, the teenager brushed off the question and said she was not going anywhere. Then she disappeared down the street.
McCoy attempted to follow her daughter but could not catch up.
Because Erica had run away before and returned safely, her mother initially hoped she would come home on her own. Instead of immediately contacting police, McCoy began calling Erica’s friends and other family members – but no one reported seeing her.
What happened to Erica after she walked away from home remains the central mystery of the case. Investigators have never publicly accounted for her whereabouts between Thursday evening and early Saturday morning.
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A FIRE IN THE WOODS
At approximately 5:10 a.m. EDT on Saturday, April 17, 2004 – less than 36 hours after she disappeared – firefighters were dispatched to a brush fire near the intersection of Pincushion Road and Montgomery Lane, just off U.S. Highway 378.
The fire — estimated to be approximately 40 feet in diameter — was burning in a wooded, rural section of Lower Richland County. As firefighters extinguished the flames, they discovered a body lying facedown near the center of the burned area.
Columbia firefighter David Crossland, who was among those at the scene, later described the discovery to WIS-TV.
“No matter how many times you see that, you’re never used to it,” Crossland said. “It’s not a good discovery.”
The body had been damaged so badly that authorities could not initially identify the victim through a visual examination, however it was clear the victim had been badly beaten.
A missing-person report filed after one of Erica’s previous runaway episodes had never been cleared from law enforcement databases. That report contained identifying information that eventually helped authorities connect the remains to her. Investigators also found a necklace bearing a boot-shaped charm similar to one she was known to wear. Dental records subsequently confirmed the victim was Erica.
The brutality of Erica’s death has haunted her family and the investigators assigned to her case. Authorities determined that she had been severely beaten prior to being set on fire. Investigators also indicated soot was found in Erica’s lungs — an indication she may still have been breathing when the fire was started.
Cold case investigator Dottie Cronise has said Erica’s position in the crime-scene photographs appeared consistent with someone attempting to crawl away.
“You can see her laying on the ground and her position is like she is trying to crawl away,” Cronise told WIS-TV 10 (NBC – Columbia, S.C.) in February 2025. “She is trying so hard to just crawl away from where she is and eventually just succumbs.”
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Investigators have long suspected Erica knew her killer – and that the fire was intended, at least in part, to destroy evidence. It did not destroy everything, though.
“The fire had done a good bit of damage,” Cronise said in 2023. “There were some things it did not damage that we are continuing to follow up on and take a closer look at.”
Investigators have not publicly disclosed the nature of that evidence. In an interview for The Deck podcast, however, Cronise said forensic evidence recovered from the scene could help corroborate a witness’s account or connect the right suspect to the killing.
Tire tracks were also reportedly documented near the scene.
The location where Erica was found may itself offer an important clue. The area near Pincushion Road and Montgomery Lane is rural and secluded, with railroad tracks nearby, homes spaced far apart and an old logging road providing access farther into the woods.
Investigators familiar with the scene have said it would have been difficult for an outsider to find — particularly in the darkness — without knowing the area. The killer or killers may have also used the logging road to enter and leave without being detected.
The isolation of the scene, combined with the extreme violence used against Erica, has contributed to the longstanding theory that she knew the person responsible.
Her mother believed that. Investigators believe that. Erica’s surviving family members believe it, too.
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SOMEONE KNOWS SOMETHING
Richland County investigators have reportedly received nearly 100 tips in Erica’s case – but none has provided the link they need between a suspect and the physical evidence recovered during the investigation.
Investigators examined telephone records from McCoy’s home and interviewed Erica’s friends, teachers and acquaintances. Her broad social circle generated numerous names and leads, but authorities have never publicly identified a suspect or person of interest.
Cronise said some of the tips received in more recent years have been useful when compared with information developed earlier in the investigation.
A detail that seemed insignificant years ago could corroborate something investigators have since learned. A person who did not recognize the importance of what they saw or heard in 2004 may understand it differently today.
Those who were teenagers at the time are now adults — many with teenage children of their own.
“Somebody out there knows something,” Cronise told The Deck. “They may not even realize that they know it.”
For sixteen years, McCoy waited for that person to come forward.
“It’s never gonna be easier because I don’t know what happened,” she told The State in 2017. “Now, if I find out what happened, then I can kind of rest my mind.”
McCoy died on April 30, 2020, without learning who killed her adopted daughter.
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In July 2025, Erica’s stepmother, Sonya Tucker, and her sister, Candice, publicly renewed the family’s plea for answers.
Tucker remembered Erica as a happy child who loved spending time with her brothers and sisters. Candice spoke of everything her family had lost in the decades since Erica was killed.
“My son will never meet his aunt,” she told WACH TV-57 (Fox – Columbia, S.C.).
More than two decades have passed since Erica walked away from home, but investigators do not believe the answers to her case disappeared with her.
Someone may remember the vehicle seen near the woods. Someone may know where Erica spent her final hours. Someone may have heard a confession, noticed suspicious behavior or protected a friend they could not bring themselves to implicate.
That person may be the only barrier standing between Erica’s family and the truth.
Anyone with information about the murder of Silene “Erica” Eaddy — or her whereabouts between the evening of April 15 and the early morning of April 17, 2004 — is asked to contact the Richland County Sheriff’s Department at 803-576-3000 or submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.
A cash reward may be available for information leading to an arrest or conviction.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
As a private investigator turned journalist, Jenn Wood brings a unique skill set to FITSNews as its research director. Known for her meticulous sourcing and victim-centered approach, she helps shape the newsroom’s most complex investigative stories while producing the FITSFiles and Cheer Incorporated podcasts. Jenn lives in South Carolina with her family, where her work continues to spotlight truth, accountability, and justice.
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