About murder in Clemson, how many of you remember this?

May 30, 2006, 8:10 PM

how many of you remember this? She was a classmate of mine in all of my chemistry classes.

Taken from Greenville News.

Clemson murder remains unsolved seven years later
Posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 - 6:02 pm

By Ron Barnett
STAFF WRITER
rbarnett@greenvillenews.com

The shoreline is thick with warning signs.
No swimming. Don't eat the fish — PCB contamination. Turn on your radio if you hear the Oconee Nuclear Station sirens.

But here, where Stacy Brooke Holsonback's body was found floating in Lake Hartwell seven years ago today, there's no warning that would have helped save the 18-year-old Clemson freshman.

Nothing about going riding in a four-wheeler with two guys from school.

The red clay dunes where the high-spirited biochemistry major went "mud bogging" have been leveled and replaced with a Chrysler-Dodge dealership. The narrow strip of State 93 near the boat ramp where her body was found is now a landscaped four-lane highway.

The years have gone by, and a new student body has come and gone.

"I think this is a very safe place," said Sumera Patan, a graduate student in electrical engineering who had never heard of Brooke Holsonback. She said she frequently walks around campus and downtown Clemson at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning and doesn't worry about her safety.

If life has returned to normal at Clemson, it, of course, is not the same for Warren and Debbie Holsonback, Brooke's parents. It will never be the same for them.

Nor for Sgt. Greg Reed of the Oconee County Sheriff's Office.

Holsonback's death was ruled a homicide. Bruises were found on her throat, and an autopsy showed she died by strangulation rather than drowning.

How it happened remains a mystery.

"I'm bent on solving this case," Reed said, "and I think it will be solved."

The Holsonbacks and the Sheriff's Office are convinced they know who killed her. But lacking hard evidence, no charges have ever been filed.

"I still worry that whoever's out there that did this could do it again to someone else," Warren Holsonback said. "And that really bothers me, that they're still on the loose."

Unanswered questions

It had been an overcast but unseasonably warm Wednesday for late February when Holsonback decided to go out for some late night fun.

Holsonback had had a drink or two but was nowhere near intoxicated, her autopsy showed.

She and the two men, one of whom she had studied with frequently and the other whom she had met a couple of times, headed out after 10 p.m. on U.S. 123 toward Seneca, Reed said. They made their way in a black Jeep Cherokee to a gullied clay wasteland well known to thrill-seekers with four-wheelers and dirt bikes.

Eventually they got stuck in the mud.

"The story that we're being told is that they tried for a long time to get the vehicle out," said Reed, the lead investigator on the case. "The two guys who was accompanying her got into an altercation, and the last time that they say they seen her, she was sitting on the bumper of the vehicle."

They told authorities they thought Holsonback had decided to walk the three miles back to campus. The men decided one of them would walk back to the campus to get some help, Reed said. They found some buddies at their dorm room to come back and rescue them.

They said they never saw Brooke after that, Reed said.

Police interrogated the two freshmen more than 13 hours. One of them had a bite mark that they said occurred during their fight — an alcohol-fueled brawl over blame for getting stuck in the mud.

A dental test to determine who did the biting was inconclusive, Reed said.

Reed wouldn't comment on tests to find out if she had been sexually assaulted. But he said evidence degrades rapidly in water and her body had been in the lake at least eight hours before it was discovered by a construction worker at the ramp near the YMCA beach.

"It's a very frustrating case," Reed said. "Sometimes you feel like you've got a lot, and then you feel like you don't have that much. But I am convinced that that case will be solved."

Candle still burning

At the Holsonback's home in Newberry County, an electric memorial candle engraved with Brooke's photograph remains lit, seven years later, Warren Holsonback said. He keeps photos of her, and her brother and sister, on his desk at V.C. Summer Nuclear Station, where he's an instructor.

"It has been a long time now," the 50-year-old father said, "and it's still something that we deal with on a daily basis."

For Debbie Holsonback, this time of year is always harder. She still avoids her daughter's gravesite.

"It's hard to just deal with that part of it," she said. "At this point I choose to think of her with good memories."

She remembers a daughter who had aspired to discover new cancer treatments or design artificial limbs for disabled people; a high school cheerleader with a personality that could light up a room when she walked in. Brooke, who would have been 25 now, excelled in classes for gifted and talented students in high school and loved to sing gospel music.

Brooke's younger sister and brother keep Mrs. Holsonback going, she said.

Both are Clemson students.

Kelli, 22, is a senior who plans to go to the Medical University of South Carolina after finishing a master's in physical therapy. Justin, 18, is a freshman in engineering.

"It's easy to give up when it's just you," Mrs. Holsonback said. "But we've tried to keep their lives going as normal as possible."

Do the Holsonbacks worry about their kids' safety on the same campus where their daughter spent her final day?

"Sure, you can't help but have concerns and worry about it," Warren Holsonback said. "The thing is you can't let that totally consume you, though. And that's hard balancing that out."

If most students at Clemson don't remember Brooke's story, her sisters with Gamma Sigma Sigma made sure they still hear her name. The service sorority established a program called SAFE, or Safety Awareness For Everyone, in her honor, to offer self-defense classes and raise awareness of campus safety.

Hope abides

It's faith that Warren Holsonback relies on to cope — both religious faith and faith that the case, someday, will be closed.

"Whether it's taken care of here in my lifetime or not, I know it will be taken care of," he said.

They still believe someone may have seen something on that dark road between Clemson and Seneca. Or that someone has heard something. Officers handed out hundreds of fliers to motorists who traveled the road where Holsonback was last seen. Once, they got an anonymous phone call from a woman who said she had information and would call back. She never did.

But they know that as time goes by, the leads become fewer and farther between. And there are new cases to be investigated.

"It would be nice to have the ability to sit and just work on this one case or on any unsolved case, but unfortunately you can't do that, because crime don't take a holding pattern," Reed said. "It keeps happening."

The Clemson University Police, the State Law Enforcement Division, and the FBI continue to assist, but there hasn't been much new to investigate lately, Reed said.

Reed pins hope on advances in crime-solving technology.

"Every day something new in forensics is coming out," he said, adding, "There is no statute of limitations."

For any parent, coming to terms with a child's death requires grace beyond measure. But for the Holsonbacks, that has remained just beyond reach.

"A lot of people say the victim's family, all they want is revenge. That's not what we want," Warren Holsonback said. "We just want justice."

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I was a freshman. My girlfriend at the time (now my wife) lived in Johnstone A. It put a lot of fear in people on campus, especially the girls in Johnstone A. The thing that was so frustrating is the apparent ineptness of the CUPD. There were two males that were suspected to be involved. They were last seen with her, their SUV was seen near the crime scene, and there were allegedly other incriminating circumstances. They were both expelled from CU but never charged. A real pity.

Less than a year later, we had the Jason Knapp tragedy as well. My wife and I have been talking about the Holsonback and Knapp tragedies ever since hearing about the young woman last week. I just pray for her family and friends.

About murder in Clemson, how many of you remember this?

Re: About murder in Clemson, how many of you remember this?

There was a girl named Norsaadah Hussein who got killed

they found her...link. here's info about the others as well

I remember both. I was a sophomore when Brooke was murdered

I am sure they would've appreciated national media coverage

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