Brenda Green

On Christmas morning in 1984, a discovery on a quiet residential street in Columbia, South Carolina, brought a brutal end to the holiday. At about 7:15 a.m., the body of 26-year-old Brenda Green, a female, was found outside a home at 1013 Pine Street. The festive day was shattered by the grim reality of a violent crime that would leave a family devastated and a community searching for answers for decades to come.

Brenda had been last seen alive at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Less than eight hours later, she was found partially clothed. An subsequent investigation by the Columbia Police Department determined she had been sexually assaulted and murdered. The case, cataloged as number 84-83081, left investigators with few leads to pursue in an era before DNA technology was a common tool in forensic science. The trail for Brenda’s killer quickly went cold.

Tragedy would strike the Green family again with an almost unbelievable cruelty. Less than three years later, on May 10, 1987, Brenda’s sister, Patricia Ann Green, was found murdered in Richland County. Her body was discovered in a culvert near the entrance of McEntire Air Base in Hopkins. She had been shot multiple times in what Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott would later describe as a "gruesome scene." For thirty years, Patricia's murder also remained unsolved, another cold case filed away but not forgotten by law enforcement.

The connection between the two sisters' deaths was a haunting question for both their family and investigators. While no direct evidence linked the crimes, the possibility that one killer could be responsible for such a profound familial tragedy was a chilling thought. For decades, both cases sat in the cold case files of their respective departments, waiting for a break, a new piece of evidence, or a fresh set of eyes.

In 2017, a major development in Patricia Green's case cast a new light on Brenda's unsolved murder. The Richland County Sheriff's Department's Cold Case Squad announced that Phillip Johnson, a man already serving four life sentences for other murders in Sumter County, had confessed to killing Patricia. DNA evidence collected from the 1987 crime scene finally linked Johnson to the murder. Sheriff Lott stated that Johnson’s motive was simply that he was on a "killing spree."

Following Johnson's confession to Patricia’s murder, cold case investigators announced they would be looking more closely at the unsolved killing of her sister, Brenda. Johnson’s confession provided information that only the killer would have known about Patricia's death, giving investigators hope that a similar break could occur in Brenda's case. The renewed focus brought the 1984 Christmas Day homicide back into the public eye, reminding the community of a crime that remained a scar on its history.

As of 2026, the murder of Brenda Green is still listed as an active, unsolved homicide and criminal sexual conduct case by the City of Columbia Police Department. Decades have passed since she was stolen from her family on a day meant for celebration. While a killer has been held accountable for her sister's death, the person responsible for Brenda's murder has never been brought to justice. The case remains open, a lingering question waiting for an answer.