Fears, Concerns Linger After 2008 Murder Charles Way’S Family Still Seeks Closure Almost 10 Years Later
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C4 Reflections on Sumter’s erstwhile skyline PANORAMA Calling all superheroes 3rd Comic Arts Symposium set for next weekend A5 SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2017 $1.75 IN SPORTS: USC women join men in tourney’s Elite Eight B1 Legislators: Funding infrastructure a daunting task JIM HILLEY school districts to expand and provide we have availability on our bond in- they requested and conservatives ad- [email protected] maintenance to their buildings. debtedness to issue a new bond bill, verse to any kind of borrowing. “That basically took all our bonding come bring us your requests,’” he “You have to do this while at the South Carolina State Rep. Murrell capacity,” he said. “We didn’t have the said. “We had over $2 bil- same time facing criticism that you’re Smith, R-Sumter, said he is going duck ability to borrow money until we paid lion of requests,” he said. running up the debt in the state and hunting this weekend. that bond indebtedness off to keep our “The difficult task is pri- your running up the credit card and Pity the poor ducks. AAA credit rating.” oritizing these needs be- we don’t need a bond bill. It’s just a Smith has been working in the Now that bond bill has been paid off, cause they are real.” pork fest,” Smith said. trenches as the House Budget Writing he said, the state can pass it’s first It’s a thankless task as “It’s balancing the needs of state Subcommittee has tried to pare down bond bill in 17 years. well. government versus the need to be re- requests from state agencies to what “For years, we have been putting off SMITH Smith and his fellow sponsible,” he said. can be included in a proposed bonding deferred maintenance, we have been subcommittee members Smith said it is akin to what has bill. putting off capital needs of agencies have apparently been happened to the state’s roads. Smith said that in 2000, the Legisla- in this state and now we come and we taking potshots from all sides, includ- ture passed a $1 billion bond bill to aid say ‘OK, we are going to look because ing agencies not getting the money SEE SMITH, PAGE A11 Fears, concerns linger after 2008 murder Charles Way’s family still seeks closure almost 10 years later The Sumter Item begins a se- ries of stories on cold cases that lack enough information to SUMTER ITEM FILE PHOTO solve. By bringing attention to A billboard was used to help obtain information on the murder of Charles Way. them, the hope is that someone might have information that gust, she said. “It was just a Miles to stop by his house to Way was struck once in the Way’s jewelry and money will help solve the cases. New normal day.” check on him. right side of his abdomen, were not taken after he was technology, such as DNA test- Miles said she called her fa- It wasn’t until Miles went to above the belly button, by a shot, and the house was found ing, might also help solve cases. ther that morning, and they her father’s home on Grace low-caliber round, possibly a in well-kept condition with no had a normal Lane off Myrtle Beach High- .22-caliber gun. signs of a struggle, states the BY ADRIENNE SARVIS conversation. way about 4:30 p.m. did the feel- According to a report from crime scene report. [email protected] Other family ing of a normal day change. forensic pathologist Janice E. Way kept a .380-caliber pis- members spoke According to an incident re- Ross with Newberry Patholo- tol under a pillow in the mas- Almost nine years after the with him that port filed on the date of the gy Associates in Newberry ter bedroom and another murder of 66-year-old Charles day, too, she said. crime, Miles found her father County, Way is thought to .380-caliber pistol in the con- Way, Sumter County Sheriff’s According to lying on the floor near the have died in the early after- sole of his vehicle, but only a Office still has no suspects or previous state- back door, unresponsive. noon from excessive blood television remote was found WAY a motive as to why the beloved ments from Miles and other family loss after the bullet cut his near his body. Way was also father and grandfather was Way’s family members initially thought aorta artery. found wearing only a pair of shot and killed in his home members, Dotsy Prescott, that Way had collapsed be- Gun powder residue was blue shorts. Aug. 18, 2008. Way’s sister, attempted to get cause he had complained left on Way’s abdomen indi- A letter from Way’s brother, Robin Miles, Way’s daugh- in touch with her brother by about stomach pains, accord- cating that he was shot at sent to a county investigator, ter, said she remembers that phone that afternoon, but he ing to 2008 statements from close range but that the gun said Way would never have Monday nearly a decade ago did not answer his home county investigators. was not pressed against his answered the door without a as a pretty day. It was not too phone or cellphone, which It wasn’t until later that a body, according to the crime hot even though it was Au- was unusual. She then asked bullet wound was found. scene investigation report. SEE WAY, PAGE A11 Economist says small metros should look at long-term population BY BRUCE MILLS mates showed Sumter essentially flat lation growth from two perspectives: dustry workforce needs are constantly [email protected] in population from the last decennial first, by providing additional opportu- evolving and growing due to technolo- census in 2010 to 2016 with a dip of nities and resources to current resi- gy in the workplace; so, having rele- Smaller metropolitan areas, such as 0.06 percent — or 60 resi- dents to keep them here; and, second, vant resources and training available Sumter County, need to look at popu- dents — during the six- by marketing appropriately to bring is critical. lation growth as a long-run opportuni- year period to 107,396. whoever it’s targeting into the county “The technical college is a piece of ty and process due to the complex During the same time, from the outside. Each of these pieces that, and K-12 is a piece of that as well structure of the economy, says one the state grew by 7.3 per- must work together simultaneously as — both of those are important,” Von state economist. cent — or 335,755 resi- well for growth over time, he said. Nessen said. University of South Carolina Re- dents — to 4,961,119 fu- As far as the first approach of op- Key indicators to look for in this search Economist Joey Von Nessen VON NESSEN eled by growth in the portunities for current residents, Von facet are technical college enrollment made his comments Friday to The major metropolitan areas Nessen said it involves having jobs and the tracking of these students’ Sumter Item after Thursday’s release of Charleston, Myrtle available for residents to fill, but also progress toward obtaining employ- by the U.S. Census Bureau of the lat- Beach, Columbia and Greenville. having the proper resources and train- ment locally. est county population estimates for Von Nessen said Sumter and other ing in place to meet the demands of the state and entire U.S. Those esti- second-tier metros must look at popu- current employers. Business and in- SEE PROGRESS, PAGE A11 VISIT US ONLINE AT DEATHS, A13 WEATHER, A8 INSIDE Kay Frances Lewis Jasmine O. Johnson Walter J. Saul WARM AND CLOUDY 4 SECTIONS, 34 PAGES the .com Kenneth R. Foflygen Sr. Wesley Williams Michael K. Workman VOL. 122, NO. 116 Mostly cloudy and warm John W. Tingle Mae E. Myers Johnnie L. Jackson Sr. Classifieds C8 today with a chance of rain; Virginia M. Whack Robert Oaks Gabriel Robinson tonight, partly cloudy and Comics D1 Archie Dantzler Herbert B. Boykin Sr. James D. Thompson mild, chance of rain continues. Opinion A14 Carlee Lathan Martha A. Gibbons Master A. Kennedy USA Today C1 Harmon Walker Jerry L. Jackson HIGH 79, LOW 57 A2 | SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2017 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] Employment surveys differ for month, but labor market tight BY BRUCE MILLS variation between what's [email protected] being estimated for the payroll employment numbers and Two separate monthly em- then what's being estimated ployment surveys released for the household numbers," Friday show South Carolina's Kaglic said. "More often than economy moving in different not, I think, we find that the directions and provide a gray truth lies somewhere in be- picture, but one thing that's tween when you get those big crystal clear is the state's divergences in there." labor market is extremely So, Kaglic said, he needs to tight, says a regional econo- see the larger trend over the mist with the Federal Reserve next couple months of data to Bank. get a clearer picture of where Rick Kaglic, senior regional employment is moving in the economist with the Charlotte state. division of the Federal Re- The two monthly surveys serve Bank of Richmond, provided a similar picture for PHOTO PROVIDED made his remarks Friday after Sumter County as well.