Samantha Josephson, Student Killed After Getting in Car She Believed Was Uber, Was Stabbed to Death: Coroner

The New Jersey woman killed after getting into a car she believed was her Uber was likely stabbed to death by her attacker, officials in South Carolina said.

Samantha Josephson, 21, died of “multiple sharp force injuries,” the Clarendon County Coroner found, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. 

Court documents released by the agency said Josephson suffered “numerous wounds evident on multiple parts of her body to include her head, neck, face, upper body, leg and foot.”

It was not immediately clear what weapon was used in the murder, or if investigators had found any weapon at all. 

Josephson’s body was discovered by turkey hunters 12 hours after she was seen getting into a black Chevrolet Impala in front of the Bird Dog bar in Columbia. Her remains were found off a dirt road in Clarendon County, a rural area about 65 miles southeast from where she had last been seen alive. 

The aspiring lawyer and political science major, who was in her junior year at the University of South Carolina, believed the car she was getting into was the Uber she ordered, police said.

But instead, Nathaniel Rowland, 24, was behind the wheel of the car, according to police.

Authorities said they found Josephson’s blood and cellphone in Rowland’s vehicle when they pulled it and him over Saturday. He was arrested and charged with murder and kidnapping in connection to Josephson’s killing. 

Rowland is due in court later this month. 

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