The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And just like last week, it'll just be me bringing you the podcast this week. If you listened to last week's episode or have been following our Instagram, you may remember or know that Eli's mother recently passed away. So he's taking some time to just mourn and take care of himself. Once he's ready to come back, he will be welcomed back with open arms and I miss doing this podcast with him.
But I want to continue to bring you cases and today on episode 56, we have a cold case. And just as a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person. And while all the cases we cover are horrible, this case is especially heinous. Today we are talking about Silene Erica Eaddy. And this takes place in April of 2004 in Columbia, South Carolina. But first a little bit about Silene. Silene often introduced herself as Erica and that's what she wanted family and friends to call her.
So for this podcast, I'll refer to her as Erica. Erica is 15 years old in 2004. She was born August 14th, 1988 and she would be 35 years old today. Erica had lived a lot of life by the age of 15. She was put into the foster care system as a baby. When she was three years old, she went to live with Fred and Brenda McCoy, who would go on to adopt her. In her new home, Erics quickly developed a close relationship with her family and especially her father, Fred.
Sadly though, Fred passed away when Erica was only five years old and according to her mother Brenda, the loss affected Erica tremendously. Erica is a freshman in 2004. She did attend Dreher High School, where she was involved in ROTC and dance.
Unfortunately she was transferred to alternative school in February of 2004 because she cussed a girl out, which when I was in high school was such a common occurrence, it just seems wild to me that a high school would essentially expel a student for cursing at another student. Erica was well known around her neighborhood. Others would often see the tall 15-year-old taking walks with her friends. Erica was always dressed up and always had her hair done.
She took great pride in her appearance and when she grew up she wanted to be an artist or a hairstylist. A neighborhood friend, Tahyah, said Erica was quote, really sweet. I used to play with her a lot. We played hopscotch and jumped on my friend's trampoline. End quote. Erica was starting to push the boundaries more and more at home. Brenda McCoy said quote, Erica was a sweet child, but a lost child. She was trying to find her family. She always wanted to know where they were.
We couldn't find them. We didn't know where to look. End quote. Erica had started sneaking out of the house more and more to roam the neighborhood with her friends. And at 15 older men started to take notice of Erica and offer her rides places from time to time and Erica would sometimes accept them. A mother of one of Erica's friends said quote, she had a wonderful spirit about her, but she was just searching for something. End quote. And now a timeline of events.
On Thursday, April 15th, 2004, at around 730 in the evening, Erica snuck out of her house. She had plans to head to a friend's house on the corner. However, an eagle-eyed neighbor spotted Erica sneaking out and called Brenda to let her know. Brenda began searching for Erica. This disappearing act was starting to become a routine. Erica would sneak off for a few days while Brenda would look for her. Then eventually Erica would return home.
In fact, at this time, there was already an active missing child case with the police department. Erica had run away a few weeks earlier but had returned home and Brenda forgot to call the police to let them know. So the alert was still active. When Brenda couldn't track Erica down, she returned home. She did not call police since there was already an active alert and Erica had always returned home. The next day, Friday, April 16th, there is still no sign of Erica.
There are no details about what efforts were made or were not made to locate her on this day. The next day, Saturday, April 17th, at around 5 a.m., someone driving early in the morning spotted a brush fire in a wooded area near Montgomery Lane and Pincushion Road on the outskirts of Columbia. The fire department responds to the call and get to work putting out the brush fire. At around 5 30 that morning, a firefighter discovered a body in the flames.
The body is face down in a ditch with the left arm outstretched. Firefighters immediately call police and stop spraying the area. Police arrive at the scene and begin to process. When police see the body, even though she had been badly burnt in the fire, it was obvious that there had been an extremely violent attack before the fire started. The fire destroyed a lot of the area, but police are able to collect evidence at the scene including tire tracks found near the body.
As far as providing an identity, the only clue that police had at this time to go on was a necklace with a shoe or boot charm on it. Police get to work to ID the victim. It's here that they pull the missing person reports and they come across Erica's case. After obtaining her dental records on Monday, August 19th, the police are able to confirm that the body found on fire was Erica Eaddy. Brenda is called in to make a positive ID and once they show her the necklace, she knows it's her daughter.
She wore that necklace every day. Police start contacting the media with Erica's picture in hopes of piecing together the 34 hours before she was found in the wooded area. An autopsy was conducted and on top of the violent attack, it was determined that Erica had soot in her lungs, meaning that she was still alive and breathing when she was set on fire. Erica's family is distraught over the loss. Erica had two younger siblings who deeply felt the absence of her.
Brenda McCoy told local media quote, right now I'm in turmoil. I'm still trying to figure out who would do this. End quote. On Friday, April 23rd, just six days after Erica's body was found, her memorial service is held. Brenda, Erica's mom, chose to keep her ashes with her until Erica's 18th birthday, at which time she would be placed next to her father. Erica's friend, Tahyah, says quote, I think she's in a happy place now. And I'm going to miss her for a very long time.
I hope God takes care of her. End quote. Police continue to work behind the scenes. They run driver's licenses, go door to door, and even go through church memberships to find the killer. But the next big update we get comes May 31st, 2005, so it's been over a year since Erica was murdered. Police believe that they are close to cracking the case and bringing justice. Investigator Eric Barnes says quote, this thing is still solvable.
We need bits of information that's going to push it over the top. End quote. Investigators, along with Erica's family, believe that she knew her attacker and this was not a crime committed by a stranger. Tips are still coming in to police, but they continue to plead with the community to come forward.
Investigator Barnes says quote, if they can get over that silence that undermines the moral fabric of our community, if you will, but also undermines the investigation, we can bring these suspects to justice. We're pretty confident we're close. We just need those people to step forward now. End quote. I thought it was interesting here the use of the word suspects. This leads me to believe that the police are looking for multiple people in this case.
However, late summer 2005, so that same year, the case is turned over to the Richland County Cold Case Unit to work. Police still maintain that they are close and that the answer lies with someone in the community. Sheriff Leon Lott says quote, we believe that there are people in the lower Richland community that have yet to come forward and share their knowledge about her death. End quote. Even though it seems like an arrest was near, the case appears to go cold.
In September of 2008, it's been four years since Erica's murder, police create a deck of cards with cold cases and missing person cases on it. We've talked about this in other cases as well. When police create these, they will put them into the commissary for folks in jail to buy and the hope is that a jailhouse informant will come forward with information. It's unclear if any tips are generated by this deck, but if they were, it didn't lead to any arrests.
After 13 years with no resolution, in May of 2017, Brenda speaks with local media asking for answers. She says quote, it's never going to be easier because I don't know what happened. Now if I could find out what happened, then I can kind of rest my mind. End quote. The cold case unit is still investigating Erica's murder. They believe the fire was set to try to conceal evidence, but also to be quote, cruel. I would say evil. What happened to Erica was evil.
Unfortunately, in April of 2020, just a few days after the 16th anniversary of Erica's murder, her mom, Brenda McCoy, passed away. Erica still has siblings who are looking for answers. So with that, if you know anything about the murder of Silene Erica Eaddy or her whereabouts from April 15th through April 17th of 2004, please call the Richland County Sheriff's Department at 803-576-3000.
And the sources for the timeline today come from The State, The Greenville News, The Index Journal, ABC 13 News, WLS 10, WLTX TV. So that is the case of Silene Erica Eaddy. And again, I'm going to refer to her as Erica since that was the name that she liked for herself. When I found this case, I saw her picture first, which we are going to be putting on our Instagram and on our website as well. So definitely check those out there so you know what I'm talking about.
But her picture instantly drew me in. She looks so magnetic and funny, which is something that a lot of people in her life said she was. And to see this like very charming picture juxtaposed with these awful, evil actions, this death was so violent. It's really heartbreaking. I mean, I was kind of overwhelmed by this case. But the people who did this need to answer and bring answers for her siblings and just pay for what they've done because this was evil. This really feels evil to me.
So there's a lot of questions, obviously, in this case. There's a lot unknown and there's not a lot of details out there that can be confirmed, right, like through the media and stuff. It's the first question is obviously like who would do this. And so reading kind of between the lines and just from everything that I gathered, you know, I pointed out in the timeline, the use of the word suspects.
So it does sound like there are multiple people involved in this and that when justice is brought there will probably be several people who have to answer for what happened to Erica. The police talk about running driver's licenses. So to me, that's like a small clue that this person is of driving age. Like they have a driver's license. So they're probably at least 17, 16, perhaps. And where her body was found from her home, it's not that far.
It's about five miles, but it is like a really wooded starts to turn into like rural area on the outskirts of Columbia, South Carolina there. So it's about a 10 minute car ride. And because they did find tire tracks at the scene, you know, that all I think that's all supported and makes sense that she was driven there. And the police and family also believe that the suspect or suspects, as they say, were known to her. So these were people that she did know.
So to me, that would mean that other people saw them hanging out at some point. Other people know that they knew each other. So these connections really need to be made. And anyone with information, please come forward in this case. Another thing that I found interesting that seemed connected to the suspects is a church connection of some sort. So if I could ask police anything, I would ask, is this still something that you're looking for?
Are you looking for like a member of a church, some kind of church connection, perhaps? Erica was part of a gospel choir and, you know, attended church activity. So is that still a connection that police are looking into? Or has that been eliminated? That was something that they were chasing down pretty hard in the first year after her murder. So I wonder, has that been rolled out completely? Or is that still a suspect pool?
But other than those small little bits of information, and again, it's not very much to go on, and it might not be anything, but that's all we really know about what police know. It did sound like they were close or they had an idea, but maybe just didn't have those final pieces of evidence. You know, as a true crime person and somebody who watches a lot of true crime from a lot of different angles, you always have to wonder why couldn't they get that information?
Is it because those people just genuinely did not do it and are not guilty? Or is it because somebody just needs to come forward with information? Like, would love to also know that, but I'm sure the police don't even know that. So they wouldn't tell me because they don't know.
In the more recent reporting, so 2017 and on, it always says, you know, if you know any information about the murder or about those 34 hours, so this would be from 730 on April 15th, 2004 until about 530 on Saturday, April 17th, 2004. So those 34-ish hours in there, police are trying to piece together the last hours of Erica's life. It is my sincere hope that those missing hours were not all torturous, but no matter what, it wasn't good. Erica was missing from her home.
She was with people that had nefarious intent or was with people that left her in the company of people with nefarious intent. Whatever happened in those 34 hours? Wow, I just, it seems like such a long time for her. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing else to say except that it's evil. Those 34 hours are evil. But I do wonder if police have any touchstones within those 34 hours. So from the early reportings, we know that Erica was headed to a friend's house that lived on the corner.
I presume that police talked with this friend to see if Erica made it there and if she did, what time did she leave? Who did she leave with? What did she say? Where was she going? So I wonder if those details are there because Erica did in fact make it to the friend's house on the corner and then, you know, just kind of duck and hid from her mom while her mom was out looking for her and then left the friend's house to go somewhere else. Or did Erica never even make it to the friend's house?
We know she was well known in the neighborhood and men would often offer her rides and it sounds like she had accepted them in the past and had returned home afterwards. That is all we know about those car rides. So I wonder if there are any of those small bits of information in those 34 hours that police do have. Is she seen on surveillance camera anywhere?
You know, any fast food places, any convenience stores, gas stations, any places like that that would have cameras or surveillance or anything like that? Or just people who would recognize her? Did she do that or what time did they truly lose track of her? But for all we know, those 34 hours police are still seeking to know where she was, who she was with, and what she was doing.
So again, if you know anything about the murder of Silene Erica Eaddyor her whereabouts from April 15th starting from 730 p.m. through April 17th ending at 530 a.m. of 2004, please call the Richland County Sheriff Department at 803-576-3000.
And as I mentioned before, on our website, coldandmissing.com, on our Instagram, at coldandmissing, we'll be posting pictures of Erica and you'll see what I'm talking about when I just saw her picture and I was instantly drawn into her and into the charm and charisma that she clearly had and the confidence. People said she was super confident and I totally see that in this picture. So please visit us there, follow us there if you're not already.
While I have you for just a few more minutes, if you could rate and review us, it really helps others find this podcast and helps promote the goal of this podcast, which is ultimately to get these cases out there, to get people talking about them, to let the family, friends, and community of the people we cover know that these cases are not forgotten and we're with you, we're standing with you, and we're seeking justice. So please rate, review us. It really means a lot.
If you don't have Apple podcasts and you want to leave us a written review, again, you can go to our website, coldandmissing.com, leave us a written review there. You can donate to the podcast there. Also, we have transcripts there. So if you or someone you love is hard of hearing or deaf, that's all there for you as well. And that's all that I have. So thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.