In the quiet early morning hours of March 11, 2017, a grim discovery was made just west of the Santee town limits in South Carolina. A 43-year-old Black / African American man named Clyde Bethea III was found unresponsive in his white Toyota Forerunner parked on Legend Court. Witnesses had reported seeing the vehicle with a male inside around 8:30 AM.
When Orangeburg County Sheriff's investigators arrived, they found Bethea slumped over in the driver's seat with visible signs of blood.
The initial investigation quickly turned into a homicide case. An autopsy confirmed that Clyde Bethea III had died from at least one gunshot wound. Originally from Middleburg, Florida, and also having resided in Baltimore, Maryland, the circumstances surrounding his presence and subsequent death in Santee became the focus of the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office. Investigators began the arduous process of piecing together the events that led to this tragic end.
Despite their efforts and appeals to the public for any information regarding individuals Bethea may have been with or any sightings of him prior to the shooting, the investigation has yet to yield any arrests. The case has remained unsolved for years, leaving a community and a grieving family without answers or a sense of justice. Law enforcement continues to seek any information that could lead to a breakthrough in this open and unresolved homicide.
