In the winter of 2018, the lives of two families in Walterboro, South Carolina, were irrevocably shattered. Alexander Blair Blakeney, a 28-year-old man, and his friend, Brandon Dewayne Ferguson, 23, were reported missing on January 30th after not being seen for three days. The two were last spotted on January 27th in a silver Nissan, with Ferguson behind the wheel and Blakeney in the passenger seat.
Their sudden disappearance prompted a search that would end in a grim discovery and a long road to justice.
On February 2, 2018, the missing Nissan was located in an overgrown, rural area off Jones Swamp Road. Inside, investigators found the bodies of Blakeney and Ferguson. Both men had been shot to death. An investigation quickly led the Colleton County Sheriff's Office to 18-year-old Jonathan Shamar Moore. It was determined that Blakeney and Ferguson had been killed on January 27th, the same day they were last seen alive. The murders took place in Ruffin, and their bodies were subsequently moved to the location where they were found.
Jonathan Shamar Moore was arrested on February 2, 2018, in connection with Blakeney's death and for an unrelated weapon charge. He was later charged with Ferguson's murder as well. The investigation revealed a chilling sequence of events captured by a church surveillance camera on Doctors Creek Road. The footage showed Ferguson's rental car with him driving and Blakeney as a passenger, with a third person visible in the backseat. Just twenty minutes later, the same car was seen traveling in the opposite direction with a different driver. A witness later reported seeing Moore with a body that he put into the trunk of the vehicle.
In March 2022, Jonathan Shamar Moore, then 22, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. By pleading guilty, he avoided a jury trial that was set to begin. Moore was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murders, with an additional five years for the gun charge, with the sentences to be served concurrently. The conviction brought a measure of closure to the families of Alexander Blakeney and Brandon Ferguson, ending a four-year wait for justice.
