32 deaths since '77 are still unsolved

AIKEN --- Two unrelated slayings that occurred in the past year remain open at the Aiken County Sheriff's Office, as investigators work to apprehend a suspect in one case and try to identify the killer in the other.

Morris L. Dorch, of Aiken, has been on the run for nearly a year after, according to investigators, he shot 20-year-old Prince E. Shand Jr. several times with an assault rifle.

Sheriff's Lt. Michael Frank said the department is still looking for Mr. Dorch, and "at this point, we don't know" whether he is still in the area.

According to the sheriff's office, just after midnight on Sept. 12 then-19-year-old Mr. Dorch pulled up in front of a home on Kenmont Street. Mr. Dorch and Mr. Shand got into an argument, which ended with the shooting. Mr. Shand died at Aiken Regional Medical Center less than an hour later.

Lt. Frank said the sheriff's office holds arrest warrants for the Aiken man, charging him in the death of Mr. Shand.

Six months after 56-year-old Henry Freeman was found bludgeoned to death outside a nightclub in Beech Island, investigators still have no suspects in his slaying.

Lt. Frank said the Beech Island man's death is still under investigation, but police have no new leads that might point them to the person responsible.

Mr. Freeman's body was discovered about 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 16 outside the Hilltop Club on Cary Drive by a man walking in the area. An autopsy revealed he died of a blow to the head.

Mr. Freeman's death is among 32 unsolved murder cases in Aiken County since 1977.

And while 31 years have gone by since Grover Cleveland and Gwendolyn Sailors were found shot to death in the bedroom of their home in North Augusta, the case is not closed.

Unsolved murder cases are "considered open cases until a suspect is found," Capt. Charles Barranco said.

Three of the victims -- Jackie Council and two who remain unidentified -- were found in the same area, off South Carolina Highway 191 near Shaw's Creek and the Edgefield County line, between 1987 and 1993.

In 2003, the sheriff's office convened a task force to look into the county's unsolved murders but found that time was the biggest obstacle in bringing closure to the families.

However, the task force did solve one of the open cases -- that of Jim Barrow, a drug informant for the sheriff's office who went missing in September 2002. Although a body was never recovered, three men were convicted and are serving life sentences.

Reach Michelle Guffey at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or michelle.guffey@augustachronicle.com